


Rewritten

by Bittie752



Series: Rewritten [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-19
Updated: 2013-09-19
Packaged: 2017-12-27 01:20:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 41,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/972656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bittie752/pseuds/Bittie752
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of GitF, the Doctor and Rose’s relationship changed. No longer would Rose allow him to string her along while he chased after other women. She was here for the adventure and the excitement of seeing the universe. And when he dropped her off in her Aberdeen, she would be ready. But after the Doctor loses his memories of events from just after their trip to New Earth, he isn't happy with the new arrangement. And he tries to get back into Rose's good graces with disastrous consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

 

Rose sat staring at the fireplace; she despised it and everything it represented. It wasn’t the fireplace’s fault or even the fault of the woman on the other side of it. Honestly, she didn’t know who to blame for this, him for doing this to her or herself for blindly believing he was different than any other bloke or that she was special.

Just a day or so ago, outside of that chippie, after they met Sarah Jane, Rose had been convinced that the Doctor had almost let it slip that he loved her. He had started talking about humans withering and dying. ‘Imagine that happening to someone you…’

She knew he’d meant to say someone you _loved_. Foolishly, she’d thought that he meant that he loved her. Now she thought that he actually meant Sarah Jane. The more she thought about it the more sense it made. He hadn’t promised she could stay because he loved her. She was simply someone that he was comfortable with. Rose was company.

He had left Sarah Jane behind because he loved her and didn’t want to see her grow old. He must had promised to never leave Rose behind for a different reason. Not that that mattered now, because he’d left her anyway. He’d left her without a second thought, without a way home, without making sure she would be safe.

Gone now were the thoughts he’d never leave her behind because he loved her. Now, six hours after he’d jumped through a time window and left her behind for another woman, she was beginning to think that the Doctor had made her that promise because the opposite was true. That he didn’t love her and he wouldn’t be bothered when she withered and died. Rose was disposable to the Doctor and he had proved that today.

He’d fallen in love with another woman and had left her and Mickey here to die. This shook her to her very core. Everything that she had believed to be true was tipped sideways.

Rose took in a shaky breath and blinked back her hot tears. She steadfastly refused to shed even one more tear over that alien. He had made his decision and it was time she made hers. Time moved faster on that side of the time windows. They had seen Reinette go from a little girl to a young woman in matter of minutes, so who knew how many years had passed now that he had been gone for hours. The Doctor had seemingly chosen to do domestic with the uncrowned queen of France.

Reinette was a courtesan, to Rose, that meant that she was nothing more than a whore; it didn’t matter if she was French or not. A woman married to one man, mistress to another married man, and now she was engaged in nefarious activities with another man, one more powerful than any king. Reinette was the consort of a Time Lord, the last of his kind. Rose hoped that the Doctor’s ‘superior biology’ could protect him against 18th Century venereal diseases.

No, it wasn’t right to think of _her_ like that. She was an accomplished woman in her own right. And who wouldn’t fall in love with the Doctor? This was on him and Rose shouldn’t take out her frustrations on the other woman.

Something was unsettling about the Doctor’s action however. The more time she was left alone with her thoughts, the more skeeved out she became with the whole situation. The Doctor suddenly having a romantic interest in someone he met as a child right before kissing her? Disgusting. Oh yes, Rose had seen that, and it made her skin crawl just thinking about all the _dancing_ he and the courtesan were getting up to in their time together.

Bile rose in her throat. Of course he would choose the most accomplished woman he’d ever met over her. Who wouldn’t? It wasn’t that she had nothing to offer. Just nothing that could compare to King’s mistress and nothing that would seduce this new pretty boy Time Lord.

Rose was smart even if she hadn’t completed her A levels. She was also quick thinking, pretty but not stunning, brave and loyal, even if her loyalty was apparently misplaced. It wasn’t her fault, or his really, that what the idiot alien wanted wasn’t her.

More than anything, she just wished he wouldn’t have sent so many mixed signals, acting like he wanted to be with her and then shoving her away when she got too close. His previous actions and attitude had given her hope and that was the cruelest thing he could have done.

This wasn’t the first time she’d been in an abusive relationship. Although Jimmy had never hit her, he did everything in his power to make her feel like less than a person. He had taken all of her insecurities and used them against her, the same way the Doctor had today.

After Jimmy had left her, she vowed that she would never again let another man do that to her. Yet here she was, clinging to any scrap of affection the Doctor would give her. Still hoping that she meant more to him then she obviously did.

This was on her just as much as it was him, maybe even more. Over the course of their last two adventures, he’d made it perfectly clear that she was nothing more than a friend, an assistant really. Someone to keep him company and hand him tools while he tinkered.

If she was completely honest with herself, she had no real claim on the Doctor. There was no justification to be jealous that he had fallen for the French bint. No matter how much it hurt, and oh yes it hurt. She couldn’t let him hurt her like this ever again.

But after seeing the universe, she couldn’t just go back to her old dead-end life. No, instead she would take control of this situation. It was time to lock her heart away and just enjoy the adventure while it lasted. It was time to be nothing more than the Doctor’s friend because even all of time and space wasn’t worth losing her heart over. No matter what Sarah Jane had said.

_Behind her, the TARDIS felt the sorrow and anguish of her pink and yellow human. She ached to her very heart for her Wolf; she hated seeing her girl in pain. But this was necessary. The time and space ship had spent centuries combing through possible timelines looking, searching for the best outcome for her Thief and her Wolf. Although there may be pain now, in the end the three of them would have the best of times. Together. Forever._


	2. Amazonia Prime

 

The Doctor's head was pounding as he struggled to sit up. Taking in his surroundings, he realized her was in a jail cell… again. The last thing he remembered was trying to take Rose to see Ian Drury. How had he gotten here? More importantly, where was Rose?

He tried to push himself to his feet, but his limbs felt heavy and his forearm burned. His sleeve was halfway rolled up in an attempt to find the cause of the pain when a shockingly familiar voice caused him to pause.

"You ok, boss?" Mickey asked. "You've been passed out for a while now. Shouldn't have resisted arrest, but at least you didn't feel it when they did this." Mickey held up his arm to show a fresh tattoo. Well, more of a branding. "Burned like hell, this did. The TARDIS aint translatin' the words, though. Not sure why."

The Doctor, on the other hand, could read the words without the translation circuits and had no doubt as to why his ship wasn't translating them. Both of their arms read _Property of Rose M. Tyler._ Although the Doctor's included a symbol that marked him as her alpha mate, a not so small part of him preened at that.

He rubbed the back of his neck as Mickey helped him to a nearby stool. Why was Mickey here anyway? Judging from the language on the tattoo this definitely wasn't Earth. Had Rose asked if Mickey could come? He couldn't remember, and it was bothering him.

The Doctor was just about to ask Mickey what was going on when Rose's voice came from the other side of the bars. "You two really shouldn't wander off on a matriarchal planet without your mistress or your shackles."

Relief flooded him and the Doctor looked up to see her grinning like mad and dangling two pairs of golden handcuffs from her wrists. A smile tugged at his lips. There was something enthralling about seeing her coming to his rescue, and something titillating about seeing her with handcuffs. Not that simply seeing Rose smile at him like that wasn't enough to make his hearts race on its own, because it most definitely was.

"And next time, you should just go quietly. The fines for concubines resisting arrest are pretty hefty." Rose had attached the golden cuffs to both his and Mickey's wrists and started to lead them back to the TARDIS. "Good thing I had an unlimited credit stick and the psychic paper."

The Doctor stopped them before they could leave the cell. "Rose, this is going to sound a bit daft, but where are we?"

"Amazonia Prime," Rose replied, giving him a quizzical look. "You alright?"

"He resisted arrest, and they sprayed him with this stuff to knock him out," Mickey supplied while adjusting the cuff on his wrist. "The Doctor was out for about an hour."

"And now you don't remember where we are?" Rose scrunched her nose and studied his eyes. "What's the last thing you do remember?"

The Doctor momentarily closed his eyes, trying to force the memories to come back. "I was taking you to see Ian Drury," he answered reluctantly. "How long ago was that?"

"Blimey," Rose said, letting out a slow breath. "Bout two months ago, I think. Mickey's been with us, what? Three weeks, Micks?"

"Bout that, yeah," Mickey confirmed.

"So you don't remember Queen Victoria and the Werewolf? Sarah Jane and the Krillitains?" Rose probed.

"Sarah Jane? My Sarah Jane?" the Doctor asked, smiling and noticed that Rose momentarily tensed. "Wish I did, but nope."

"So you don't remember the spaceship and 18th Century…" Mickey started to ask a question, but Rose pulled hard on the chain attached to his wrist. She shook her head and sent him a cold look. Obviously something had happened that she didn't want Mickey to talk about. "I mean, you don't remember me traveling with you at all?"

"No, I don't remember any of it," the Doctor replied. "Sounds like it would have been brilliant. Except maybe the part where Mickey came aboard; that sounds a bit rubbish."

Rose rolled her eyes, and Mickey gave him a glare.

"Right, so do you think that whatever they sprayed you with might have caused this?" Rose asked, raising her left hand, the hand currently attached to the Doctor's, to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes. The Doctor jerked forward at the tugging on his wrist. His right hand crashed clumsily into Rose's chest.

Mickey sniggered. "Any excuse to cop a feel, eh, boss? Although I think that ship has sailed."

The Doctor spluttered and removed his hand, but not before memorizing the feel of her breast beneath his hand. Oh, how he'd like to feel that again. Preferably not on accident and when he and Rose were alone. Things had been heating up between them, as far as he could remember anyway. It seemed that they were closing in on the inevitable. Wouldn't it be brilliant if they had already crossed that line?

"Alright, Doctor," Rose said, breaking him from his thoughts. "So this spray could have caused this, yeah?"

"Possibly," he agreed and beamed proudly at her. That was his Rose, always putting the pieces together.

Rose started walking towards the door, pulling the two men behind her. "It's a start. Come on and let me do the talking, Doctor. You really don't want to know what the punishment is for a second offence."

He opened his mouth to speak but then thought better of it. On these types of planets, punishments could be both painful and humiliating. Instinctively he grabbed Rose's hand, entwining their fingers. Beside him, Rose stiffened and dropped his hand. Confused, he reached for her again, but she shoved her hand in her pocket.

Public handholding between a mistress and a concubine must be forbidden on this planet, he thought. Still, his fingers itched to hold hers. He fell into step a few paces behind Rose and let her lead them down the corridor to an office.

There was a pretty young woman sitting behind the desk; she was wearing a tight black leather outfit and had her own male cuffed to her wrist. Except that her cuffs were silver, probably meaning that Rose was technically of a higher class.

"Eyes down," Rose snapped, pulling on the cuffs. "And sit."

It was normally against his nature to listen to commands but when it was Rose doing the commanding, he felt willing to comply.

"It looks like you have gotten your property under control," the guard said with a smirk. "They just need a firmer hand. I could show you a technique..."

"They are perfectly under my control now," Rose said, cutting the woman off. "I like them a little feisty." Rose ran her fingers through the Doctor's hair, and he had to bite his lip to stifle a moan.

The guard smirked. "They both do seem to be excellent breeding stock. If you have grown tired of one of them, perhaps we could work out a trade?"

"Tempting," Rose replied, tugging on the Doctor's hair. "But I will have to decline; they haven't yet outlived their usefulness."

The guard sighed. "Pity, the darker one would have been so much fun." Mickey chuckled at that, and Rose jerked on his chain and shook her head.

"I was about to be off, but it seems that my alpha has had an adverse reaction to the chemicals you used to subdue him. Experiencing a bit of memory loss and I'd like to test it to make sure it won't affect him in other areas."

The other woman's brow furrowed. "It's an all-natural solution, made from several plants grown in our arboretum. Perfectly harmless to human males."

"Ah, but he's not human," Rose retorted. "So if I could have a sample to analyze?"

"An alien concubine? How extraordinary." Her lips twitched. "Had I but known he was alien, you might not have gotten him back." She reached her uncuffed hand out to touch the Doctor.

Rose grabbed her wrist, inadvertently pulling the Doctor forward. "Are you trying to make an unlawful claim on my property? Trying to do such a thing to someone like me would mean an immediate death sentence and seizure of all of your property." Tightening her grip on the woman, Rose growled. "Is that what's happening here?"

The Doctor had to bite his lip to keep the grin off his face. It was incredible how much his Rose taking charge affected him. His affection for his pink and yellow girl was growing by the second.

"No," the guard stammered, wrenching her arm from Rose's grip. "Apologizes, I didn't mean to insinuate..."

"I think that is exactly what you meant." Rose's jaw clenched. "But I would be willing to overlook it, if you give me a sample of the spray."

The woman agreed and a moment later she and her slave left the room to get Rose what she had requested. Once the three of them were alone, Mickey chuckled. "Not gonna lie, babe, that was hot. You being all bossy? I liked it."

The Doctor felt a wave of anger at Mickey's comments, hating that the idiot was flirting with his companion. Rose just rolled her eyes instead of flirting back. "I hate it when women like that act like they're better than me."

"Quite right," the Doctor chimed in. "Rose, you are simply the best. I know I've told you that before but it still holds true." He gave her his best grin and expected her to give him her tongue in teeth smile.

She didn't. In fact, she turned away from him and stared at the wall. Was she uncomfortable because Mickey was here? She never had been before. The Doctor was about to ask her if something was wrong when the guard returned. She pressed the can of spray into Rose's hand, and the three time travelers started back towards the TARDIS.

Once they were on the outskirts of the city, the Doctor tried to take Rose's hand again. He felt relief fill him as their fingers entwined. A moment later, Rose looked down at their hands and then back up at him. She shook her head and pulled her hand away, pushing it into her pocket.

Something was definitely off with Rose. The Doctor tried to push his brain to remember the last few months, tried to remember why Rose would be like this. Soon they were back at the TARDIS and the Doctor quickly unlocked the door and the three of hurried inside.

Rose reached over and pressed her thumb onto the cuff attached to both Mickey and the Doctor's wrists.

"You were brilliant today," the Doctor said, looking up at Rose. He tried to pull her into a hug but she skittered away.

"Thanks." She bit her lip and closed her eyes as if she was in deep concentration. A moment later her eyes snapped open. "Oh, wait." Rummaging in her pocket, she pulled out the spray and handed it over. "This is for you. Go do your science stuff. I'm gonna make some tea. Let me know if you find anything that I need to know."

Without waiting for him to reply, Rose hurried out of the console room. Mickey chuckled and the Doctor rounded on him, tired of his cavalier attitude. "What is so funny?"

"It's just that the next few days are gonna be interesting between the two of you." Mickey laughed again. "At least before you knew what you'd done to upset her."

"And what's that's supposed to mean?" the Doctor demanded.

"That's between you and the missus, boss. Not that she's still your missus, Rose may be more of an ex now, for both of us. I don't get in the middle of your domestics," Mickey retorted. "Although she seems to be lightening up a bit. It may be your chance to get back in her good graces. I'm surprised it's taken you this long to woo her back. Shoulda tried for a bit more romance."

The Doctor spluttered for a moment before finally managing to form coherent words. "Rose and I aren't like that. At least not that I remember. Besides I thought that you and her were…" He waved a hand around not wanting to say aloud that Rose and Mickey were in fact the couple out of the three of them.

"That was over a long time ago, mate. Not that you ever really took notice before." Mickey shook his head. "Long before you became this you." He held up his arm and pointed to the tattooed branding. "Is this permanent, or can you get rid of it? Don't really need the ex's name in some alien language tattooed on my arm. It might hurt my game." Mickey paused. "That's what this is, right?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yep. Come on, I got something that'll take care of that. There might be a slight burning sensation. Weeelll, when I say might, I mean definitely will be, and when I say slight, I mean very, very painful. Oh, and there will be some large pustules, don't want to pop those. Might cause a massive infection, possibly the loss of a limb and that would seriously affect your 'game'."

It was the Doctor's turn to laugh at the petrified look on Mickey the Idiot's face.


	3. Realizations

Several hours later the Doctor found himself with a book tucked under his arm walking down the hall in search of Rose's room. It hadn't taken long to painlessly remove Mickey's tattoo; he wasn't able to bring himself to remove his own for some illogical reason.

After that he had analyzed the spray and run several brain scans on himself. Even though he'd been unable to pinpoint the actual reason for the memory loss, it didn't seem permanent. The memories were there, but he just wasn't able to access them. They should return on their own, hopefully.

He was surprised and disappointed that Rose hadn't turned up in the med bay, bringing him tea and offering him her more than welcome company. His thoughts had turned to Mickey's words earlier about not wanting to get involved in their domestics. It bothered him to no end that Mickey refused to tell him what had happened. The young man had, however, told him that it was Mickey that had asked to travel aboard the TARDIS and that, somewhat unbelievably, the Doctor had enthusiastically agreed.

As he approached Rose's door, he hoped that she would give him the answers he needed. He turned the knob, expecting it to open. It was locked. Never before had Rose's room been locked, even after that one embarrassing time back in his last body when he'd walked in on her post-shower.

Raising his free hand, he knocked on the door. "Rose, the door's locked. Are you in there? The TARDIS said you were here." He knocked again. "Rose?"

There was a shuffling noise from inside of the room and then the click of a lock before the door opened. He smiled when he saw Rose. Her face was scrubbed clean of make-up, natural. This was her at her most beautiful, in his not so humble opinion.

She was dressed differently than she usually did for bed. Normally, she wore a vest top and cotton shorts. Today she was wearing flannel pants and an overlarge shirt, another change in her behavior.

"Can I help you, Doctor?" Rose asked with a bemused smirk.

"The door was locked," he said, pointing at the knob. She hummed in affirmation. "It was never locked before." He tried to sidestep her and enter the room, but she quickly moved into the corridor and pulled the door shut behind her. This was new, and he didn't like it.

"Did you find anything interesting? Are your memories gonna come back?" she asked. Her tone was polite but interested, almost clinically detached though.

"Yeah, should do." He nodded. "I mean they're still there. Just the connections just messed up. Given time my neurons should be able to rewire themselves, superior biology and all." He gave his best disarming grin at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"Is there anything that I can do to help?" Rose asked, cutting him off from starting his ramble again.

"Oh yes, there is plenty that you could do. Keeping up with familiar patterns, sharing stories of our adventures from the last few months. Maybe we could try you showing me the memories, telep…"

"You're not getting in my head," Rose said, cutting him off.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow in surprise. "It's not like we haven't done it before, you and I. After Utah…"

She crossed her arms over her chest and closed herself off. "I said, you're not getting in my head." She took several deep calming breaths. "I'm knackered, and I'm going to bed. We can try the storytelling thing tomorrow." Turning, she opened the door to slip back into her room. Automatically, he made to follow her.

"What are you doing?" she asked, turning around once she was a few steps inside.

In explanation, he held up the book. _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets._ "I wasn't sure where we were at. Not even sure if this is still the book we are on." He trailed off and his eyes widened when he saw the state of her room.

It was tidy. There were no clothes strewn haphazardly all over. The bureau was normally filled with knickknacks that they picked up on various trips, and her mirror was usually framed in pictures. Now everything was neat and tidy and empty. It looked like she was a visitor instead of a resident.

Horror filled him when he saw that her knapsack was apparently packed and ready to go. "Rose? Are you… Why are you…" He couldn't form a coherent sentence and didn't even fully notice that she had pushed him back outside. She was now standing with the door partially open.

Finally, he was able to string words together in a sentence. "Rose, are you planning on leaving?"

She sighed and braced herself. "Doctor, I've seen what happens to your assistants when you're done with us. I'm just… preparing for the inevitable."

He opened his mouth to tell her that she was different, so, so different, but she raised a hand to stop him. "And before you start that 'not you' stuff, please just save us both the embarrassment of you promising me something that we both know you don't really mean."

She squared her shoulders. "I know you don't remember, but things have changed around here. I'm your companion, nothing more. Please don't try to push this. I'm not the same woman that you think you remember." And she shut the door in his spluttering, confused face.

Oh, this was not good, very, very, not good, horrible in fact. What had he done? What could possibly have happened to make his Rose think that he would leave her? Or that she was simply his assistant? Rose had said that they had met up with Sarah Jane. Had his friend said something to scare Rose away? Or had Mickey convinced her that he didn't care about her like that?

Rose had once been so sure of their connection, their bond, that she had absorbed the Time Vortex to save him. And now she was convinced that he was going to drop her off and never look back. The thought of losing Rose hit him in the chest, and he could barely breathe. He had to fix this and soon.

~oOo~

Rose stared at her reflection in the mirror of her bathroom. It had been a little over a week since the Doctor had lost his memories, and he had only had a few trickle back so far. He remembered being knighted and banished by Queen Victoria but not what for. He remembered meeting Sarah Jane again but not the conversation outside the chippie. Nothing of real consequence and maybe that was a good thing. If he didn't remember those moments when she had acted jealous or like a love sick teenager then maybe, just maybe, they could get through this.

Part of her wished that he would remember Reinette. Then he could go back to his grief at the death of the woman he loved and stop trying to get back to the way they were before. Part of her was glad that he didn't remember his relationship with the French woman. At least he wasn't wearing that pain on his face anymore. He hadn't been the same after France on a spaceship: quiet, withdrawn, and morose.

He had only started smiling again in the two days before he lost his memories. That day on Amazonia Prime had been the first time that Rose had truly enjoyed an adventure since before the Krillitain. Now they were back at square one, and it was worse than before.

She picked up her toothbrush and began to brush her teeth. The first morning after his memory loss, he'd tried to press the issue of her packed bags. She told him to drop it and if he didn't like the way that she was living then he could take her home right then. Honestly, she had hated being that harsh with him. He'd looked like she kicked his puppy.

She was just a placeholder, she kept repeating to herself, just here until the next interesting person caught his eye. There was no way she would let herself fall back into the pattern they had been in before Sarah Jane and Madame de Pompadour. Rose had been completely naïve to believe that she had been his only human companion.

Putting down her toothbrush, Rose began to apply her makeup.

But he'd said that there was no one left, that all his friends and family were gone. How was she to know that he'd lied to her? That apparently there was a long line of women, some human, who he'd traveled with and may have had romantic entanglements with.

She thought that they were something special. To him, she was just another 'girlfriend' in a long line. Not the first, Sarah Jane had proved that, and certainly not the last. The courtesan had showed that to her. The ten hours he'd been gone, from her perspective, were most likely years spent in the arms of another woman.

Had he spirited her away from the palace? How had the Doctor dealt with being stuck in one place for so long? Or had it not mattered because of the woman he was with? At one point she had wondered if he and Reinette had had children. She had even gone to the library while the Doctor was still in France to check under the pretense of seeing if the Doctor had left her any clues to his whereabouts. There hadn't been mentions of any children other than a son who had died as an infant and daughter who had also died young. Both born before she had become the King's mistress. Rose's heart had ached when she read that.

Her hands trembled slightly as she began to apply her mascara. She shook her head, trying to knock those thoughts from her head. It didn't do to dwell in these thoughts. Sarah Jane, her, Reinette and countless others were all just people the Doctor used to pass the time and to feel a little less lonely.

All of that was perfectly fine, but it wasn't what she wanted for herself. She wanted him, so, so much. Even now, well, especially right now she wanted to just let things go back to when they were holding hands, hugging and running across the Universe. But she was ephemeral to him and when he was tired of her, when she was older and less able to run, when he found someone more suited to him, he would leave her.

Quickly she began styling her hair into loose curls. She'd been down that road with Jimmy, and it had hurt when he'd tossed her away. And what she had felt for that stupid boy paled in comparison to what she still felt for that stupid alien. It would crush her when the Doctor didn't want her anymore if she continued to freely hand him her heart.

No, she wasn't going to let that happen. _When_ she left it would be on her own terms. Head held high, a lifetime's worth of experience in her back pocket and the knowledge that she was worth more than she had ever thought possible would be all that she took with her. In the meantime, she would soak it all in.

Rose took one last look in the mirror. She was wearing dark jeans, a white tee with a dark pink jacket and the obligatory trainers. It was an outfit suited for most situations that the Doctor landed them in. She sighed as she thought about the Doctor.

For his part, he had been trying to make things up to her, trying to get back into her good graces. They had gone shopping and to leisure planets. And just yesterday, eight days after his memory loss, he finally took her to Barcelona. It had been fun, but he had constantly tried to hold her hand. It hurt her to look at him and know that her trying to protect herself was upsetting him.

She kissed her fingers and caressed the nearest wall. "Sometimes I think I only stay for you, love," she said to the TARDIS. A warmth spread from the wall and up her arm, and in her mind, she felt a wave of love and acceptance wash over her. At least Rose knew how the TARDIS felt about her.

Time to face the day, she thought, steeling herself to see the Doctor. One day they would be able to simply be platonic friends, right?


	4. Paris, the Planet not the City

 

The Doctor was bouncing on the balls of his feet as he twirled around the controls. Today was the day, the day that he and Rose would finally clear the air and that they would finally get back to normal. He could feel the timelines swirling. So Rose would either forgive him today or she would ask to go home. And the latter option just wasn't one that he wanted to contemplate.

It had been nine days, twelve hours, fifteen minutes and forty-two seconds in Earth time since he had woken up in that jail cell. Everything in his life had been upturned from what he could remember. Well, maybe not everything but everything Rose. And she was the most important person in his life, and he still didn't know what he had done to upset her. Unconsciously, he rubbed at the branding still present on his arm. He hadn't been able to bring himself to remove it. The words rang true and it seemed like and act of contrition.

He checked the readouts on his screen on last time. That's not right, he thought, banging the screen. Nope, the readouts were correct, right place, wrong time, but Mickey and Rose didn't have to know that. This was still the perfect place. A whole planet predicated on romance. Now all they had to do was find a nice, safe place to ditch Mickey, and he would be free to woo Rose.

As if on cue, the object of his thoughts came into the control room, giggling. He felt his heart lighten. Maybe this would be easier than he thought, or not. Looking up, he saw that Mickey was with her and had apparently said something funny. Plastering a happy grin on his face, the Doctor walked over to the two friends.

"So where are we off to today?" Mickey asked, still chuckling.

"Someplace amazing and we've already landed," the Doctor replied, wiggling his eyebrows. "I promise that you'll enjoy it."

Rose grinned but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "Come on, give us a clue. Just a little one."

Unable to deny her request, the Doctor looped an arm through hers and led her towards the door. "Ok, just a small one. Tonight, there will be a grand costume party. There's a bit of a revival period going on right now." He stopped to grab his long brown coat and draped it over his free arm.

He and Rose stepped outside with Mickey trailing close behind. The TARDIS door slammed shut of its own accord the moment Mickey was across the threshold. That was odd; the old girl must be up to something. "Anyway, here we are." He momentarily let go of Rose's arm to slip into his jacket.

"You brought me to Paris?" Rose squeaked, staring wide-eyed at the Eiffel Tower.

"Yes, but the planet not the city," the Doctor rambled, completely oblivious to the fact that Rose was simmering with anger. "This is an Earth colony in the 62th Century. Like I said before, they are having a bit of a revival for pre-French Revolutionary fashion. Well, at least they are at their fancy dress parties.

"Still there are plenty of fun things to do, football matches for Mickey, and there is a huge carnival and shopping. Rose, you love shopping. Did you bring your credit stick?"

"You brought me to Paris?!" Rose's voice was laced with anger now, and the Doctor turned to look at her properly. Her nostrils were flared, fists and teeth clenched and he could hear her heart rate increase. Oh, this was bad.

"I cannot believe that you would do this to me. Take me home, right now." She turned around and put her key in the door of the TARDIS, but it didn't turn. "Not you, too. Come on." Rose banged on the door. "Let me in. Please don't do this to me." Tears pricked at her eyes, and she tried her key again.

The TARDIS tried to send her Wolf soothing thoughts, but Rose had inadvertently blocked her out. This had to happen, momentary pain for lifetimes of happiness.

The Doctor was confused; he looked over at Mickey who was glaring angrily back at him. Turning to Rose, he placed a hand on her shoulder, wanting to calm her down. She shrugged him off and kicked the door of the TARDIS. He winced. "I don't understand. What's wrong?"

Rose snorted and turned to him. "Of course you don't understand. You conveniently forgot about what happened in Paris. But it makes sense that you would bring me to a place where you can find your kind of girl. Because that's the kind of woman that your into isn't it? French. Aristocratic. The most accomplished woman you have ever met. The complete opposite of me, cause I'm obviously not enough for you. I wonder if there will be someone here who's tarted themselves up to look like her. Bet you'd love that."

Pushing past him, she started to walk away, got about ten feet and turned back around but stood rooted to the spot. "I hope that you find that girl, too; then you can take me home. And it better be the Powell Estate in 2006. You may have dropped others off in the wrong places and never looked back, but you're not doing that to me. I won't let you."

She quickly turned and started marching away from him. Her nails dug into the palm of her hands. She wanted to rail at him about his 'there's no one left' bullshit when there were a plethora of women and probably some men, too. Either way, there were people who loved him and cared about him. People who he deserted. Part of her knew he meant it only in regards to his planet, but it still felt like a deliberate omission. Maybe it was or maybe he couldn't be bothered to remember the mere humans whose lives he'd turned upside down. Still she felt like he used her compassion against her and manipulated her with it. She ground her teeth to stop her frustrated screams.

~oOo~

There was no way the Doctor could let her run away like this. He had to go after her, but Mickey grabbed his arm to stop him. "Oh no, you don't. You let her go."

"If you know what's good for you, Mickey Smith, you won't try and stop me," the Doctor growled. How dare this idiot lay a hand on him and attempt to get between him and Rose.

Mickey's grip tightened. "Not this time, boss. After what you did to her, you don't deserve to go after her."

"And what, exactly, did I supposedly do to her? Hmmm?" His anger was simmering near the surface about to boil over. Every fiber of his being wanted to run after Rose, but this might be his chance to get some answers. "The two of you have been pretty tightlipped on what made Rose so upset with me. So why don't you tell me just what the hell your little secret is?"

"You know, I think I will tell you. See the only reason I didn't before was because Rose asked me not to. But I should have told you. Because then you would know what an utterly worthless prat you are. You left us. You left her. Left us to die and you didn't even know the name of the ship we were on."

"Why would I do that? Why would I leave Rose? Whatever you think happened, you've got it wrong," the Doctor growled, getting right into Mickey's face. "So tell me your version of events, you stupid little ape."

The young man had had enough of the Doctor's condescension and taunting comments. Mickey raised his head and glared at the other man. Taking a step forward, Mickey advanced on him and the Doctor took an involuntary step backwards.

"You left us to die so that you could shag some French bird. Rose was strapped to a table about to get 'er head cut open by clockwork robots and you were drinking banana daiquiris in pre-Revolutionary France." Mickey took another step forward, fists clenched.

"I wouldn't do that," the Doctor said, scurrying backwards away from Mickey in case the other man decided to connect that fist with his face. "There is no way I would leave Rose to die. Not for another woman. Not for anything."

"You know, there was a time where I would have believed that. But not after Madame de Pompadour and you jumping through a time window when you knew there was no way back. Rose and I had no way home, and you left us. And Rose sat for hours and hours waiting for you, thinking of all the things that you were up to with that woman. Rose saw you getting into the Pomp's head, not to mention you kissin' her. And then you bring her here to this place, during a time where they like to dress up in pre-Revolutionary clothes. It seems like you're rubbin' it in."

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak but what could he say? If he had done what Mickey had said, then it was no wonder that Rose upset with him. But there had to be more to the story. He couldn't imagine lov... caring about anyone the way he cared for Rose. A memory flashed through his mind.

It had taken him longer to get back than he had hoped. There was a fireplace that she had brought to the palace from her childhood home. He had been anxious to get back but she was trying to lure him in, asking him to stay. He had refused over and over, just wanting to get back to Rose, to make sure that she was alright.

Then he had to fix the fireplace. At first it had looked easy, but something was holding him back, stopping him from getting back to where he desperately wanted to get to. It took hours of poking and prodding before finally, there was a click and his world felt like it was beginning to right itself.

The woman, Reinette, had asked him again not to go, and he'd felt a tug on his hearts. "Pick a star, any star," he'd told her, and he'd be back as soon as he'd checked on Rose. A consolation of sorts for all the trouble the clockwork robots how caused her.

Grinning like a mad man, he flicked the switch on the fireplace and went home to Rose. His heats had soared when he saw her waiting there for him. "How long was I gone?" he'd asked as he went to hug her.

"A lifetime," Rose had replied, sounding resigned and dodging out of his embrace. "I hope she was worth it. I'm going to bed."

He'd tried to call out to her, but she kept walking away. He ran after her, but the TARDIS kept changing the corridors, keeping him away from her. After an hour, he finally gave up and headed back to the console room. It was too late to go back for Reinette now, and he couldn't even bring himself to care about breaking a promise to that woman. Not when his hearts were breaking from the way he had hurt the one he really cared about.

Back in the present, Mickey apparently wasn't finished quite yet. "You know, I will never understand how you could choose that woman over Rose. Rose tore open your ship and would have given her life to save yours. Reinette knew how the time windows worked. How many times in her life had she seen you or me or Rose coming through one of them. She wasn't stupid. She knew that all she had to do was step through one to get to you but couldn't be bothered.

"She didn't even try to come through to find you. Her life at court was more important." He snorted. "I guess that's the difference between her and Rose. One would do anything to make sure that you were safe and not alone, even if it killed her or hurt her so deeply that she had to harden her heart. The other, well, to the other it seemed like you were nothing more than a plaything."

Mickey turned and left, following the same path that Rose had taken. Closing his eyes, the Doctor tried to force himself to remember more about France or time windows or the king's mistress (whom Rose and Mickey apparently both thought was his mistress, too) but he came up with nothing else. Dammit, this wasn't turning out to be the day he'd hoped. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

It seemed that he just might lose Rose after all, and it would be entirely his fault. Well, maybe not entirely his fault, he thought, casting an angry glance at his ship. Why had she brought them here? And more importantly, why had she locked them out?

~oOo~

Rose ran through the streets of the city, trying her best to avoid knocking into people in those stupid 18th Century dresses. She ran until she was out of breath. Stopping at the edge of a park, she sunk onto a bench and cried.

Maybe the Doctor hadn't known about what had happened on that spaceship or in France, but he had still brought her here. It was possible that the memories were leaking through and he felt like he was missing something, an 18th century French, aristocratic something. And that just made her feel so much worse.

Why had the TARDIS brought them here, though? The ship was sentient and to be perfectly honest, she was the driver and the Doctor her co-pilot. Rose had believed that she and the ship shared a special bond since the Games Station. Surely there had to be more to this visit. Please, let there be another reason for them to be here.

Someone sat down next to her on the bench and held out a handkerchief. "Are you alright?" a soft, unfamiliar male voice asked.

Taking the offering, Rose dabbed her eyes and looked up at the newcomer. He looked to be a few years older than she was. He was attractive with green eyes, light brown hair and a gentle smile. On his left hand, he sported a wedding ring.

"Oh, you know, guy trouble," Rose said with a shaky laugh. "It always seems to come down to that, doesn't it? Trouble with whomever or whatever you're attracted to."

He laughed. "In my experience, it's either that or some world-ending crisis."

A tentative smile formed on her lips. "Sounds like you get around quite a bit."

"Little bit, yeah. My wife and I have this friend. It's sort of his job to be a space vigilante," he explained.

"That kind of sounds like this bloke I know." She turned and held out her hand. "I'm Rose, by the way. Rose Tyler."

The man took her hand and shook. "Rory Williams."

 


	5. New/Old Friends

 

The Doctor walked down the street, bumping shoulders and laughing with his best friend. "And where do you suppose that husband has wandered off to?"

"Dunno, he was only supposed to be getting coffee," Amy replied, looking around. "I'm sure he's around here somewhere. Probably getting himself, and us, into trouble."

"Why do we bring him along again?" the Doctor teased, leading them in the direction of the park, which was where the best coffee carts were known to be.

Amy punched him in the shoulder. "Rory and I are a package deal, and you say that you begrudgingly tolerate him so that you can enjoy my company. That and you not so secretly enjoy having him around."

"Nail on the head," he laughed, looking around the area for his missing companion. A moment later he spotted Rory sitting on a bench with a blonde woman. "Over there, and it looks like he's with a woman."

Amy tore off in the direction of a bench. "Oi," she called out, and Rory and his new friend looked up at the noise.

The Doctor's vision went blurry when he saw the face of the blonde girl, his blonde girl. This was impossible, but then again Rose Tyler seemed to eat impossible for breakfast. He quickly assessed her appearance. She was still as beautiful as the last time he had seen her. And she was wearing a pink jacket, not blue, so probably not her dimension hopping days then. This was Rose back when she was still traveling with him.

A million thoughts ran through his mind simultaneously. Rose had obviously been crying. She hardly ever did that, and he wanted to make whomever caused her that pain to pay.

When exactly was she in her timeline? Her hair cut would indicate that this was sometime in his Tenth body. But why would he bring her here?

Oh no, maybe that was why she was crying. Were her tears his fault? What had he done? Where was his younger self? He couldn't remember any of this.

This whole situation was incredibly dangerous but dammit all, it was so good to see his Rose again. Even if it would reopen old wounds.

"I thought you were just going to fetch coffee, not pick up other women," Amy said jokingly as she approached her husband. "Even if she is pretty, I don't share."

"I'm sorry," Rose started to apologize, but Amy just laughed.

Rory stood and wrapped an arm around his wife. "Well, I never could resist trying to help a woman who is obviously upset."

Rolling her eyes, Amy kissed his cheek. "Yeah, you're a bit too empathetic for that. So going to introduce us?"

"Right, this is Rose. Rose, this is my wife Amy and our friend…"

"Ian Chesterton," the Doctor said, cutting Rory off from introducing him properly. Both of his current companions gave him a quizzical look, but he shot them a look asking them not to correct him. Hopefully, Rory hadn't already told Rose that he traveled with a man called the Doctor. The less damage they did to Rose's timeline the better.

Thankfully and painfully there didn't seem to be the slightest spark of recognition from her.

"Hello," Rose said softly before shaking Amy's hand. When she turned to take the Doctor's he was simultaneously thrilled and terrified. In the end he took Rose's hand and felt that distantly familiar electricity flow through him.

Using his hand for support, Rose stood up. "I really should be going. My friend, Mickey, will probably be worried about me. Thank you, Rory. Amy, Ian, lovely to meet you." Letting go of his hand, she started to walk away.

"Wait," the Doctor called before he could stop himself, and she turned around. This was a bad idea, a very, very bad idea. But he didn't care. "The three of us were about to go to the carnival. Great big carnival. Lots of games and rides and candy floss. And I was wondering if you'd like to come with us. I'm sure your friends can get along without you for a little while. Please?"

Rose shifted her weight form one foot to another and studied him. "I don't know." Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip, and he smiled at the gesture.

"Did I mention that they will have toffee apples?" the Doctor quipped then shoved his hands in his pockets and held his breath while he waited for her answer.

"Toffee apples, eh?" Slowly a smile formed on her face. "You probably should have led with the best bit. I could use a bit of fun right now."

Relieved, the Doctor held out a hand. "Well then, Rose Tyler." His tongue curled over her name as he spoke it allowed. "Geronimo." And he tugged her hand and off they ran.

Rory made to follow but Amy held him back. "You didn't tell us her last name, did you?"

"No, I don't think I did," Rory said after running the entire conversation back through his head.

Amy's eyes narrowed as she watched the retreating forms of the Doctor and Rose. "Then how did he know it? And why did he introduce himself as Ian and not the Doctor?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Rory said, "He's the Doctor; why does he do anything? Maybe he knew her in another regeneration and he doesn't want her to know that he's the Doctor."

"You may be onto something there," Amy replied, kissing his cheek. "Let's follow them and get to know, shall we?"

~oOo~

It had been four hours, eighteen minutes and twenty-two seconds, and the Doctor hadn't seen a single sign of Rose. Or of Mickey, for that matter. He had checked the parks, stores that Rose would have liked, pubs, tourist attractions and cafes and… nothing. He had even chanced going back to the TARDIS to see if she had come back there but to no avail.

Now his big Time Lord brain was running through multiple scenarios where she was lost or kidnapped or hurt. He had to find her and try to explain, try to tell her that he couldn't lose her.

Turning a corner, he came upon the carnival that he had been planning on bringing his companions to. It was entirely possible that they had gone without him.

Running past carousels, tilt-a-whirls and pop-the-balloon games, he searched for any sign of her.

Then he heard it. The most wonderful sound in the Universe, Rose Tyler's laughter. But he couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. He looked left and right. He spun in a circle and then looked up. At the very top of the Ferris Wheel was Rose. But she wasn't alone, and the man next to her wasn't Mickey.

The Doctor's jaw clenched as he eyed Rose's new pretty boy. Late twenties, dark floppy hair, a tweed jacket - and was that a bow tie? It was! This new man was not nearly as handsome as the Doctor himself. In fact, he was sure that this man-child wasn't remotely deserving of the honor of sitting that close to his Rose. And was she feeding him candy floss?

Oh, this had to stop. He began making his way over to the ride's exit to confront Rose when she got off the ride, probably not his best plan but right now it's all he had. Halfway there he was hit by another memory, this one stronger than the last.

_It was well over twenty-four hours before he managed to find Rose again. She was in the library sitting at a small table near the fire writing furiously in a small leather bound journal. Her old journal was open in front of her. He couldn't help but wonder what she was up to._

_The Doctor knew that he had checked here less than a half hour ago. It seemed as if it was all girls together with his ship and Rose. Fine, he'd screwed up, he knew it and now the TARDIS believed he needed to be punished._

_He deserved it. His actions hadn't even had anything to do with Reinette. They had been about him being scared of how things were going with Rose. More than anything, he wanted to move things to the next level with Rose. It had seemed inevitable, and he would have welcomed it._

_But seeing Sarah Jane again had made him realize just how human Rose was. How one day, Rose would grow old and die. At most they had a few short decades together, and in a blink of an eye she would be gone. So he had brought Mickey on board and allowed himself to be distracted by another woman in order to distance himself from her so he could think this through._

_Reinette had made things easy and took those few small glimpses she had of his life and of his mind at face value. Reinette didn't push deeper or want to help share his burden. Not the way that Rose did._

_He knew he would never be dependent on Reinette, not like he had already become dependent on his pink and yellow human. Hundreds of years from now he wouldn't be mourning the loss of the French woman. Not like he would mourn Rose. Whether she left like everyone else did or whether she died, one day he wouldn't have Rose. So he pushed her away and now he may have pushed too far._

_"Rose," he'd whispered, sliding into a chair across from her. "Can we talk?"_

_"'Bout what, Doctor?" she'd asked, not looking up at him._

_Nervously, he had rubbed at the back of his neck. "About that spaceship and... and about France." He had cocked it up in a big way when she came to speak to him yesterday. He hadn't been able to tell her when she'd been willing to listen. Now he needed to fix it._

_Rose's eyes had shot up to meet his, and her jaw had momentarily clenched before she spoke. "There is nothing to talk about. It's over; you played the hero and it's on to the next adventure. Just like it's always been."_

_The Doctor had shaken his head and tried to grab Rose's hand. "I think I need to explain a few things. Yesterday, when I said she wasn't you..."_

_"I don't want to hear about your life with her, Doctor. I'm sorry that you lost someone so important to you, but I'd rather not sit here and listen to the play-by-play of your domestics with the 'Uncrowned Queen of France'." Her voice had been hard but still tinged with sadness._

_What exactly had Rose thought had happened in France? How long had she thought he'd been gone?_

_"Please, Rose, I need to tell you about what happened."_

_"No," Rose had said, looking back down at the journal. She had shut him out, and he'd watched her for a few more moments. It looked like she was copying things from one journal to another._

_"What are you doing? Rewriting your journal?" he'd asked, trying to pry the new one from her hands. It wouldn't have been the first time she let him read her private thoughts._

_This time, though, she had yanked the book away. "Yes, I'm rewriting it. The new one is much more factual and much less... of a fairy tale. It's time I grew up."_

_"Oh, what's the fun in growing up?"_

_"Some of us are going to have to live in the real world one day, Doctor. And I can't afford to keep living in my fantasies; it only makes the reality hurt more." Rose had stood, tucked her new journal under her arm and had flung the old one into the fire._

_The Doctor's eyes had widened, and he dove after the book. Thankfully, the TARDIS had extinguished the flames the moment Rose's back was turned. Only the cover and the edges of the pages had been singed. He clutched the book to his chest and stared at the door Rose had gone through._

_A single tear fell down his cheek. Yes, he had gone too far. A few days ago he had been worried about only having half a dozen decades or so left with Rose. Now it seemed he'd be lucky to have a few weeks left with her._


	6. Too Much Too Soon?

 

Amy leaned her head on her husband's shoulder and stared at the couple a few meters ahead of them. Never before had she seen the Doctor act like… well, act like a love-struck teenager. And the girl, this Rose, she looked strangely familiar, like someone from an old photograph.

That was more than likely the case, since Amy was a notorious snoop. Once she had tricked the Doctor into letting her see the visual record of past companions. Rose's picture would, naturally, have been amongst them. But the Doctor had never mentioned her before. Then again, he didn't really talk about his past at all.

"Do you think he loves her?" Amy whispered loud enough for Rory to hear.

"Nope," he replied, wrapping an arm around her waist.

Amy abruptly stopped walking and turned him to face her. "What? How can you say that? Just look at them."

"The Doctor doesn't just love her; he's in love with her. Big difference."

"But he never talks about her. What do you think happened to her?"

Rory sighed. "Dunno. The Doctor's life is dangerous. Rose could have left or… well, you know."

"But it's been over three hundred years, at least since we met him, and who knows how long before that he knew her and he's acting like he's on a first date. Don't you think he would have… I don't know, gotten over her? Moved on?"

"No, of course he wouldn't," he said, shaking his head. "I know that look that he's giving Rose because it's the same one I give you. He's in love with her, and that kind of love doesn't just fade with time. I waited two thousand years to see you again and not once, not for a second, did my love for you fade."

Leaning over, she kissed him. "A sappy romantic, that's what you are," she murmured against his lips.

"Well, one of us has to be," he laughed, and she punched him in the shoulder.

"Wait, what about River?" Amy asked.

Rory looked slightly confused. "What about her?"

"She's our daughter, and she's married to the Doctor," she replied with a sardonic eye roll.

He returned it with one of his own. "Yeah, they got married in an alternate time line because the Doctor needed to save the Universe." He wrinkled his nose. "I'm not sure that counts."

"Don't say things like that," she said, swatting his arm. "She's your daughter."

"Exactly! Do you really think I want the Doctor as my son-in-law? Besides it's not like those two are doing anything less than a little harmless flirting." He grinned. "Besides, can you blame him for wanting one more day with her?"

"I suppose not." She gave an exasperated sigh. "Come on. Let's catch up before they sneak off somewhere." Amy grabbed his hand, and they off in the direction Rose and the Doctor had gone.

~oOo~

Ian was, to put mildly, an enigma. His face was boyish, but there was something about him that made him feel ancient at the same time. Instantly, she had felt comfortable around him and yet there were moments when his intense stares made her uncomfortable. She simultaneously felt like she had known him her entire life and that she knew almost nothing about him. Which was true since they had only met a few hours ago. Honestly, he reminded her of the Doctor and she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

In appearance, he looked only a few years older than Rose herself, at least by human standards. For all she knew he wasn't human; humanoid seemed to be a common body type amongst the species of the Universe, and to some races three hundred was easily the new thirty.

His sea green eyes lit up with boyish enthusiasm as they rode the Tilt-A-Whirl but looked ancient and haunted when she briefly mentioned something from back home. She loved that he laughed easily but that she could wind him up over the smallest things, like trying to force feed him a toffee apple because, according to him, they were rubbish.

"Fancy a ride on the Ferris Wheel, Rose Tyler?" Ian asked with a cheeky grin, swiping a bit of her candy floss. "It has the most spectacular views of the city."

"Sounds like fun." Rose smiled back, catching her tongue between her teeth, and she noticed that he made a noise that sounded like a strangled sob. But before she could analyze that, he had grabbed her hand and led them over to the queue for the ride.

Looking around and noticing the absence of Ian's friends, Rose asked, "Where are Amy and Rory?"

Ian wrinkled his nose. "Probably off doing…couple-y…married stuff. They do that stuff a lot."

"Typical bloke, hating the domestics," Rose giggled and bumped his shoulder with hers.

"Maybe not hate, but a strong dislike. Unless you find the right person to share those types of things with." His free hand straightened his bowtie nervously. "I much prefer the excitement of travel. New ground beneath my feet, new air… I love it."

A soft pang of guilt hit her as she remembered saying something similar to the Doctor on New Earth. "Me, too," she replied softly. "There's not much better than seeing new places." They took a few steps forward, and Ian started telling her about the history of carnivals. She leaned her head into his shoulder and listened to his history lesson. This was nice, easy, and she found herself able to put her Time Lord problem out of her mind for a few moments.

Several minutes later they found themselves seated closely together on the small seat of the ride. There was still no sign of Amy or Rory or, for that matter, the Doctor or Mickey. For the absence of the latter two, she was immeasurably grateful.

Ian wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Is this alright?"

"Yeah, it's fine." Biting her lip, she looked away just as the ride jolted to a start. Her skin was tingling where he touched her. "I don't usually do things like this," she said quickly and then grimaced at the confession.

"What, go on carnival rides? Because that really is a shame, you should always take the time to have fun. This one time on Ancilla Medirus, a few friends and I..."

Rose looked back at him and put a finger to his lips. "That's not what I meant. I mean, I don't do this." She waved a hand between the two of them. "It's not a normal thing for me to... run off and spend the day with someone I barely know. I just didn't want you to think that I did...that sorta thing."

For a long moment, Ian simply stared at her and then Rose felt the laughter start bubbling up inside her. "Actually, strike that. Running off with someone I barely know is sorta my MO." The laughter spilt out, and for the first time in weeks she was giggling uncontrollably. A split second later, Ian joined her and the car shook as the joyfully laughed.

After a minute or two, Rose had a stitch in her side and was panting for breath. The two of them managed to calm down enough to settle in and enjoy the ride. Rose snuggled into his shoulder and fed him a bite of her candy floss.

He continued to tell her stories of the planet and its people. It felt right to be here with this man; she felt like she was already falling for Ian. But she also felt incredibly guilty. Hadn't she just spent weeks angry and hurt at the Doctor for doing the exact same thing? True, she now knew that there was nothing between the two of them and that she was free to do as she pleased. But the Doctor still didn't understand that and if he knew what she was doing right now he'd be upset.

"Rose, is everything alright?" Ian asked, brushing his lips against her hair.

She shook her head and looked up at him. "It's just this bloke I travel with... we're nothing more than friends and I don't want to hurt him but it's just with you...it feels... there's a deep connection." Her tongue darted out of her mouth and licked her lips. "You know what I mean?"

Mirroring her actions, he moistened his own lips. "I know exactly what you mean." He shifted her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers. It was soft and his lips were slightly cool against hers. She let out a sigh, and Ian used the opportunity to slip his tongue between her lips.

Quickly the kissed escalated and Rose enjoyed the feel of his mouth and tongue exploring hers. One of her hands reached up to caress his cheek, and she felt a tear run down her fingers.

Why was he crying? Rose started to pull back but he tangled a hand in her hair, one of his thumbs grazing her temple. And something hit her with the force of a tidal wave. Emotions enveloped her, longing, desire regret, hope, happiness, a crushing sense of loss and an overwhelming all-encompassing love- for her.

Her name whispered through her mind, each syllable being said reverently in an amalgamation of the voices of Ian and both her Doctors.

Images flashed through her mind, too. Her running hand in hand with her first Doctor, hugging underneath a wave on Women Wept, and a kiss shared on the Games Station as he took the heart of the TARDIS from her.

Then scenes with her second Doctor: lying on his coat in the applegrass, the two of them riding a Vespa through the streets of London, her promising him forever on some alien world. The Doctor leaning his head against a white wall, a beach, the words Bad Wolf written on every surface of some sort of China town.

These weren't her memories. Rose whipped away and felt the acute emptiness at the loss of his mind in hers. "No, no, no, no, no, no," she muttered, looking up at him. "You're the Doctor." It wasn't a question.

"I am," he replied breathlessly.

"You were in my head."

"No." The Doctor shook his head. "You were in mine. Snuck underneath my defenses, which were admittedly weakened because it's been so long, and you, well, you're you."

"You changed again." Rose raised a hand to caress his face, and he leaned into her touch.

"I did, I'm sorry. It's been so long, decades, centuries really. I've missed you." He reached up and took her hand, placing a kiss in her palm.

Rose felt her chest constrict, and her breathing became rapid and shallow. It was too much. This was the Doctor years, maybe decades or centuries after they had parted, and he kissed her. He missed her. Her! It was too much.

The ride slowed to a stop, and the operator opened the gate, allowing them off. "I can't do this right now. I need a moment." Rose pushed past both the ride operator and the Doctor needing time process things. It was too much.

She ran, almost barreling into Amy and Rory. She ignored the new Doctor who was calling after her, and she pushed past her current Doctor and Mickey as they tried to stop her. Right now, the only thing she wanted was a place to think.

_~oOo~_

Fury coursed through the Doctor's veins as he watched the 'pretty boy' who wasn't all that pretty, kiss his Rose. How could she do this to him? Alright, so technically he had no right to be mad at her. Rose had made it perfectly clear that they were nothing more than friends and that she may just be leaving him completely after today. So yes, rationally, he shouldn't be mad or hurt or feel that sting of jealousy that she had kissed someone else.

But rationality be damned.

He started to charge the entrance to the ride, to confront Rose and her suitor when they exited. But someone grabbed his arm.

"Oh no, you don't," Mickey said, whirling the Doctor around to face him.

The Doctor blinked in surprise, momentarily caught off guard by the appearance of the other man. But his rage quickly took control again. 'Where did you come from?" he demanded, trying to push the idiot out of the way.

"Been following you, making sure you don't do anything stupid." Mickey held him back. "Looks like I was right to, coz you're about to do something incredibly stupid."

"You saw what she did? Kissing that other stupid ape? She's your girlfriend and you don't care?" The Doctor wrenched his arm free of Mickey's grasp.

"You call me an idiot and a stupid ape and yet you can't even remember that Rose and I have been over for a while now," Mickey called before running after the Doctor.

Several meters before he made it to the entrance to the ride, Rose ran past him, her suitor hot on her heels.

"Rose, wait," the floppy-haired man in a tweed jacket yelled, chasing her. "Please just let me explain."

The Doctor spun around, and he and Mickey ran after Rose and the odd man. As focused as he was on the two people running away from him, he didn't notice the two that were following them.

~oOo~

Amy was livid as she ran after Rose, the Doctor and two other men who had apparently decided to join the chase. Flirting between the Time Lord and the blonde woman was something that she could tolerate but not kissing. The Doctor didn't do that kind of thing, at least he shouldn't and not with someone who wasn't his wife, her daughter.

What was so special about this girl that the Doctor had kissed her? And why had Rose run off?

Ahead of her, she heard all three men, the Doctor, a tall, skinny man in a long coat and a younger dark skinned man wearing jeans and a t-shirt, yelling at Rose to stop.

"Amy, slow down," Rory said, catching up to her. "Let them work this out."

"Let them work it out?" she asked aghast. "The Doctor isn't good at working anything out on his own. He needs me… I mean us. He needs us."

"Right," Rory snorted. "The Doctor is really going to want us around for this."

They reached the street where the TARDIS was parked, and Amy watched as Rose pulled put a key on a chain around her neck. "Why does she have a key?" Amy asked. "I don't even have a key, and I've known the Doctor for practically my whole life."

"Wait, Rose," the Doctor called. "That's not your TARDIS." But it was too late, the door had opened before Rose could even fit the key in the lock and she darted inside. Oh, this was going to be bad.


	7. Intial Confrontations

 

Something in Rose's gut guided her down this street and when the familiar blue box came into view she knew why. Hopefully, the old girl would let her back inside now.

"Wait, Rose, that's not your TARDIS," she heard the new Doctor calling behind her. For a moment she hesitated, not sure if she wanted to see what the TARDIS looked like after she was gone. The door swung open and Rose was hit with a welcoming hum. She could feel that the ship had missed her.

The least she could do was say hello to her, Rose hurried inside and stop frozen with awe.. "Oh, aren't you gorgeous," Rose whispered reverently as she walked up to the console. When her hand touched the controls, her mind felt like it was wrapped in a big bear hug.

"She misses you. We both miss you," the new Doctor said as he shut and locked the door behind him. "That won't keep him out for long, but it will give us a moment to talk."

"Still the most beautiful ship in the Universe. What happened? Why'd she change?" She looked up at him. "No don't tell me. This is dangerous isn't it, crossing your own timeline like this? Is that why you didn't tell me who you are?"

Someone, presumably her current Doctor, was banging on the outside of the door. He was yelling something that she couldn't understand. Knowing him, it was probably something along the lines of 'let me in'.

"I was astonished to see you here, Rose. Not surprisingly, I don't have any memory of this. Would have had to make myself forget, you know, if I ran into myself." The pounding at the door continued while the new Doctor made his way over to Rose.

"And yes, it is very dangerous crossing my time line." He reached up and cupped her face. "But to steal a few more hours with you, it's worth the risk."

Rose's head was spinning and pounding, the latter thanks to her Doctor on the other side of the door. She guessed that his key must not work. "Why?" she said, tears filling her eyes. "Why would I be worth it? I'm just another one of your assistants, disposable. One in a very long line."

The tweed Doctor's eyes widened in horror. "Who told you that you were disposable? You're special, the best."

"I'm not though. I'm not special,"she whispered. Her voice was small, sad. "And you kissed me."

"Rose Tyler, you are beautiful, impossible and the very best. You saved my life so many times and you have seared yourself onto my hearts forever. Yes I did kiss you and I'd like to do it again. If you don't mind." He wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned down. Unconsciously, she licked her lips and nodded. Her mind heart and mind were racing as she tried to process what had happened in the last few minutes. Beaming, he softly pressed his lips to hers.

A small sigh escaped his throat as she began to kiss him back. All of his movements were tentative, gentle and she could feel that he was still holding back. Reluctantly, she pulled out of the kiss and rested her forehead on his cheek.

"I still don't understand," she murmured. "Why on Earth would you still miss me? It's not like you lov..cared about me the way you did the others, Sarah Jane, Reinette. I'm not them."

Before the Doctor could answer, the door to the TARDIS flew open and her current Doctor stormed inside, followed by Mickey, Rory and Amy. Rose jumped back, trying to extricate herself from the new Doctor's arms. But he kept ahold of her waist and glared at the younger version of himself now striding into the room.

"How dare you? You can't just do this," the pinstriped Doctor said, poking his counterpart in the chest. "Messing with timelines, and why the hell was Rose running away from you? If you hurt her, consequences be damned." The Oncoming Storm was brewing just under the surface.

The Doctor in tweed clenched his jaw and drew himself up to his full height. Which was still a few inches shorter than his former self. "How dare I? Do you have any idea what Rose said to me before you broke into my TARDIS?" His voice was a low growl. "She told me that you think her to be disposable. What did you do?"

The pinstriped Doctor's gaze faltered, and he turned to Rose. "You think you're disposable?"

Rose's stomach clenched. The truth was that's exactly how she had been feeling since she'd met Sarah Jane, but now she wasn't so sure. All she could do was nod and her current Doctor's shoulders drooped. He took a step towards her but she took a step back, still uneasy at the cacophony of emotions she was feeling.

"Can someone tell me what's happening here?" Mickey asked, breaking the silence.

"It's simple, really," Rory started to explain. "The guy with the bow tie is a future version of the Doctor that you know. When he saw Rose again, which I assume was on accident, he wanted to spend a little extra time with her because I presume it's been several centuries since he's seen her. Oh, and my wife Amy and I are the Doctor's current companions. I'm Rory Williams, by the way."

"Mickey Smith," Mickey said, shaking hands with Rory.

Everyone else in the room turned and stared at Rory, their mouths agape. Well, both Doctors and Amy looked astounded. Rose and Mickey were smirking.

"What?" Rory asked, rolling his eyes. "I'm not completely useless, you know."

Rose wasn't able to help the small laugh that escaped from her pursed lips. "I like him," she said in an aside to the future Doctor.

"You like everybody," he replied, adjusting his bow tie.

"Not everyone," Rose whispered, her eyes darting over to the pinstriped Doctor, thinking of the woman who had turned his head and kept calling her child. Just because an older version of himself missed her after all those years didn't mean she was suddenly going to forgive this version of her Doctor. For all she knew, she still leaves him after this and he only misses her because things were left unsaid.

Rory hadn't recognized her name. She was just another former companion whose identity and existence were unknown. Tears stung at the back of her eyes, and she could feel the eyes of both Doctors boring into her. She didn't want to talk about this in front of everyone. Truly she didn't want to talk about it at all.

The pinstriped Doctor tried to take her hand, and Rose stepped backwards and shook her head. The Doctor in tweed tightened his grip on her waist and pulled her towards Amy, Rory and Mickey. Reluctantly, Rose let him lead her; the other Doctor followed, grumbling.

"Doctor," Amy hissed and both Doctors turned to her. "My Doctor," she clarified. "We need to talk about what happened out there."

"Not now, Pond," her Doctor retorted.

"But what about Ri..." she began, but he cut her off.

"Mick, Mickety, Mickey," the new Doctor said, letting go of Rose's waist to grab Mickey by the shoulders and kiss him on top of his head. "It's good to see you again. Well, I say again, but I just checked up on you and the Missus a few years back. Wonderful little boy you have. I should have said hello, though. But I didn't, sorry. I'm bad about that, not saying hello. Now, don't take this the wrong way," he said, wrapping an arm around the other man's shoulders. "But what are you doing here?"

"Not again," Mickey replied with a huff. "Did you lose your memories, too?"

"What does that mean?" the new Doctor asked, spinning on the balls of his feet to face Rose and the old Doctor. The latter of which was trying to grab Rose's hand. She kept batting him away.

The new Doctor's brow furrowed. "I never once lost my memory when I was traveling with Rose. I assume I am, or more correctly, you are going to have to repress this memory, but other than that I never forgot one moment with Rose." He gave Rose a soft smile, and Rose couldn't help but smile back.

They must have stood there staring at each for what others considered an inappropriate amount of time because Amy cleared her throat.

"Well," the Doctor in pinstripes said, drawing out the vowel. "You must have repressed more than just today, you bow-tied giraffe. Because a little over a week ago, I lost two months' worth of memories."

"From when to when?" the Doctor with the bow tie asked, dashing towards the console. Rose swore she heard him call his former self a 'rude hedgehog' as he ran.

"From just before Queen Victoria and the Werewolf to three weeks after…." Rose swallowed hard. "Until three weeks after France on a spaceship."

"I'm still so very sorry about that, Rose," the new Doctor said, looking up at her with a deep sadness in her eyes. "I was an idiot and I didn't deserve your forgiveness."

Rose wanted to correct him and say that she hadn't forgiven him but her current Doctor huffed. "I'm sorry, too. Not that I really remember what happened."

"It was a stupid, impulsive, hurtful thing that we did to Rose that day. Something that seems completely in line with that rude character of yours." The newest Doctor turned to Rose. "I know I said it over and over that day, but I never meant to hurt you."

Rose shook her head. "You never said you were sorry. You never said anything."

"What do you mean?" The tweed Doctor rounded on the one in pinstripes.

"I don't really remember what happened," the other Doctor ground out.

Both Doctors glared at one another, but before either one could snap at the other one Rory piped up. "Werewolves with Queen Victoria, that's sounds a bit mental. Then again, we met Vampires in Venice."

Rose turned and smiled at him, any distraction to break the stalemate. "Now that's a story I would like to hear."

"No!" her current Doctor protested. "There will be no sharing of stories. Every minute we're here we risk altering the timeline. Rose, Mickey, we need to leave now before we do some serious damage."

"It might already be too late for that." The Doctor at the console stood up to his full height. "Somehow the three of you have experienced things that I have not."

"You can't possibly know that," the pinstriped Doctor protested. "I have lost months of memories. You lost months of memories."

"See, that's the thing," the younger looking, older version of the Doctor contradicted. "I am the one who would know that. In my timeline, Rose and I went from Queen Vicky, to Rome- that sculpture really was some of my best work- to Sarah Jane to Re… to time windows on a spaceship. But after that, it was falling through the Void and Cybermen and Mickey staying in Pete's World."

"You can't tell us this," the younger Doctor said and at the same time Amy added, "Time can be rewritten. You say it all the time."

"What are you teaching your companions!" the pinstriped Doctor demanded. "Right here, right now, this is a paradox. What you and your friend are talking about so casually could set off a chain of events that would rewrite years of your life." He turned to Amy.

"You seem so cavalier about time being rewritten." Stepping forward, he glared at the redhead. "If things change now, it's possible that he, I, never would have met you. Everything that you think you know about your life could be gone in a blink of an eye. Is that really what you want?"

Amy swallowed hard, and she took a step back. Gently, Rose placed a hand on her current Doctor's arm. "Leave her alone, Doctor. She didn't cause this. It sounds like we did, and from the sounds of it we're gonna have to forget anyway. Come on, let's just talk this out."

The spiky haired Doctor relaxed under her touch. Rose gave him a small smile. She let her hand slide down his arm and took his hand. She might still be upset and uncomfortable being stuck in the middle of these two Doctors, but Amy shouldn't have this taken out on her.

Amy, on the other hand, decided that she needed to vent her feeling in a different direction. Striding purposefully up to her own Doctor, she grabbed one of his braces and pulled him up one of the staircases after her. From below she heard Rory say 'this isn't going to be pretty'.

Choosing to ignore her husband's comments, for now, she walked a little ways down the corridor. Once she thought they were out of earshot of the other humans, she released the elastic on his braces so that it snapped painfully against his chest.

"Ow," the Doctor cried, rubbing his chest. "That hurt."

"Good," Amy retorted. "It was supposed to hurt. Now talk to me, Raggedy Man. What is going on? Who is Rose to you? Why were you kissing her?"

The Doctor glowered at her for a moment. "You may be my best friend, but you are not privy to all the intimate details of my life."

"So things with Rose were intimate?" She couldn't help but smirk. "Does River know about her? I wonder what your wife would think about you snogging your ex-girlfriend."

"River has nothing to do with this, and she is hardly my wife. A hand-fastening ceremony performed under duress in an alternate reality does not count." Anger laced his voice. "No matter what River believes."

"Oi, that is my daughter you're talking about."

"Regardless of what River believes our relationship to be, _I_ am not involved with her. And as for what Rose is to me, she is important and that is all you need to know." He tried to move past her, thinking this discussion to be over.

Blocking his path, Amy looked at him and said, "What about what he, you, said about rewriting all of our time together. That's not going to happen, is it?"

Something in the Doctor's expression softened. He wrapped her in a tight hug and kissed the top of her head. "I don't know, but something has changed and I need to find out what happened and why. Until I know more, I won't be able to tell what kind of damage, if any, has been done to my timeline."

"But you'll promise to not let one moment between us be rewritten. Not one single moment," she said into his shoulder.

"Like mother, like daughter," he sighed, shifting her so he could head back towards the console room.

"What was that?" Amy asked as he pulled back from the hug.

He waved a hand dismissively and started to walk away from her. "That just reminded me of something River once said to me in a library." A promise that he didn't want to make at the time and certainly wanted to break right now.


	8. A Little Alone TIme

 

The Eleventh Doctor hurried back to the console room, back to Rose. He knew that Amy was now terrified about her past, her future, but her concerns were at the back of his mind. Right now the most important thing was Rose and, he begrudgingly admitted, his Tenth self.

Now that he knew there was a problem, he had to ascertain where the timelines diverged. The easiest way would have been to probe the mind of his younger self, but he had memory loss from the time that the shift most likely occurred. The Doctor wrung his hands in anticipation of the alternative; going into Rose's mind.

It had happened a few times during the time they had traveled together. He had never accessed her memories, and she had never strayed into his. They had simply been a soothing presence in each other's mind.

The first had happened after the Dalek encounter in Utah. He'd had a nightmare and she had shown up in his room. That telepathic encounter had happened on accident, but Rose had seemed happy to help him in any way possible. As long as you didn't spring it on her in surprise.

It happened again after her father's death, and on Krop Tor. But he also used it to assure Rose of his feelings and remorse after his blatant stupidity in pre-Revolutionary France.

Reinette had been a distraction from his feelings for Rose and he had hurt her. But she had forgiven him and made him promise to stop pushing her away. She had said that she may be human and that it would end one day, so why not make the most of every moment that they had.

His Rose was brilliant and lovely and he missed her terribly.

But now she was inexplicably in his TARDIS and time was in flux around her. A small but bright glimmer of hope shimmered in his hearts. Time was changing; dare he hope?

No, he had to focus on the task at hand, sort out what was going on, and let go of Rose. Again.

By the time he made it back to the console room, his counterpart was attempting, futility, to open the front door to the TARDIS. He had his sonic in one hand and was holding onto Rose's hand with the other, although from the looks of things she didn't feel like being dragged along for the adventure this time. Rory had sat down on the steps, watching them in bemusement.

"I don't think that's gonna work, boss," Mickey said, trying not to laugh.

"Doctor, she's not going to let you out. Not until she wants to." Rose wrenched her hand out of his grasp. "And you can stop trying to manhandle me." She let out a deep sigh. "Look, something's going on here. Something that she needs us to figure out before she lets us out of here."

Rose's eyes darted to the central control column. The lights flickered and there was an affirmative hum that filled the room. "Right, so let's put the egos and anger aside and work this out. I'll be in the library if anyone needs me." She walked straight through the console room, passed Amy, and continued up a flight of stairs and then down the corridor.

"Um, that's not the way to the library," Amy said, pointing after Rose.

Both Doctors smiled. "Don't worry, the old girl will move it so that she can find it," the current pilot of the ship explained with a wonky grin. "The TARDIS is quite fond of Rose."

"Right," Rory said, standing back up. "Mickey, how about we head to the media room? The Doctor just picked up the Star Trek reboot series on Blu Ray. Amy, you come too." He grabbed her hand as she walked past.

"No, I'm going to the library to help sort this out," Amy protested. "The Doctor needs me."

"Not this time," Rory replied, squeezing her hand. "Besides, I think we can talk Mickey into telling us some embarrassing stories about the Doctor."

Once the console room had cleared of everyone save the two Doctors, the one in pinstripes turned to the other one. "Don't think you've fooled me. I know you had something to do with the TARDIS locking us in here. You'd risk the reapers for one more day with Rose."

The older Doctor smirked. "You have no idea what I would risk to have more time with her." His eyes darkened and his voice was low and threatening. "You'll have no idea what you are truly capable of until you lose her forever."

The two men locked eyes for a long moment before Doctor in tweed looked away and grinned. "But I didn't have anything to do with this. I have a feeling this is all Sexy's doing." He fondly patted the console before running after Rose. Before he got too far away, he called back over his shoulder, "She hardly ever takes us where we want to go, but she always takes us where we need to go."

~oOo~

_The TARDIS shifted the library into the path of her Wolf and then changed the hallways in case the Red one tried to follow. There were things that needed to be said between her Thieves and her Wolf. Wounds that needed to begin to heal before her manipulations of the timeline could progress farther._

_Time was still in flux and it was up to the three of them now to ensure that all of her hard work hadn't been in vain. She had already twisted many important moments in their lives. Things that neither of them would notice for years to come, things that would be unexpected but welcome._

_She had done all that she could to nudge her Thief and her Wolf to this moment. They were standing on the precipice; all they had to do was take a leap of faith and let the other catch them as they fell._

Rose leaned against the door after shutting it behind her. Everything about today set her on edge. When she had walked out of the console room, she had put on a brave face. No one in there would have been able to tell what was going through her mind or how terrified she was.

She was so conflicted. Her feelings for the Doctor were all over the place. She hadn't forgiven the Doctor for what had happened in France, he hadn't given her any real reason to forgive him. Except maybe he had. The new Doctor, the one who could remember what happened, had apologized and the current Doctor had pipped up too. And this new Doctor was so much more open with his feelings. Telling her how much he missed her, kissing her. He'd even risked a paradox to spend a few more hours with her.

Her eyes widened in horror. Maybe there was another reason that they had been put on lockdown. She imagined reapers outside the doors to the TARDIS, destroying the entire universe. Erasing lives one by one.

The last time they had shown up it had been entirely her fault. A rookie time traveling mistake her first Doctor had called it before advising her to never make those kinds of mistakes again. But maybe she hadn't heeded those warnings properly because now the future Doctor had said that something they had done had altered their timelines. He had always called her jeopardy friendly.

What had she done this time?

And how long would it take her current Doctor to chuck her out because of it when this was over?

Yes, she had told the Doctor to take her home earlier, but she wanted to leave on her own terms. Not be chucked out on her arse.

A sudden thought struck her, and she clamped a hand over her mouth. The Doctor had said that he was going to have to erase today's events from her mind. What would stop him from taking more? From taking all of her memories of him from her?

A thrum of what felt like a stern admonishment coursed through her mind. She stepped away from the door and touched the wall. It immediately warmed under fingers. "I'm overreacting, aren't I?"

The ship hummed and Rose felt like she was surrounded by a warm, loving hug. "It's just so much has changed, and I'm not sure I can trust him anymore."

"Oh, Rose," her current Doctor, now without his long coat, whispered from the doorway. "I know that I can't remember everything that happened, but I am so sorry that I broke your trust. I…I care so deeply about you. Always will if my next regeneration is any indication."

"But you left me," Rose replied softly, eyes downcast. "Less than a day after promising that you would never leave me behind, you fell in love with another woman and left me."

"It had nothing to do with wanting or loving Reinette. How could I love her?" This time it was the new Doctor who spoke. "I was scared, Rose. Seeing Sarah Jane again reminded me that you were human and that one day, long, long before I would be ready for it, you would grow old and die." The last word caught in his throat.

"So I did what I always did, I ran away. And I hurt you in the process." He gave her a small apologetic smile. "I never wanted to hurt you. I'm so very sorry."

Rose gave a slight nod. She was beginning to realize the depth of his feelings. However, there was still one point that gnawed at her. "But you were gone for almost ten hours, a lifetime on the other side. Did you… did you live out the rest of her life with her?"

Both Doctors answered at the same time.

"No, absolutely not."

"I hurried back to you the moment I could."

"How could you think I could live a life at court?"

"I don't think I could have stood being away from you for so long."

"Just you, Rose."

"Only you, my Rose, forever you."

"You must know how I feel about you."

"The same, I feel the same way about you, that you feel about me."

Luckily both Time Lords were now standing near enough to one another that Rose could clamp one hand over each of their mouths. She took in a deep shaky breath. The Doctor, both Doctors, had pretty much confessed that what she'd hope he felt for her was true.

She vividly remembered slipping into the new Doctor's mind earlier today. It had been a shock to bypass all of his mental defenses so easily. But that wasn't the most shocking part of it. No, that had been the intense love and longing that she had felt there. There was no denying that those were his honest, raw emotions.

He loved her, even now, three hundred years later for him. He'd inadvertantly showed her that and now both of them were staring at her, with similar but different pleading looks in their eyes. Both of them were begging her to believe them. The hurt of the past few months was still there as was the sting of betrayal but she knew that this was them at their most vulnerable, their most honest.

"Okay, I believe you," she said in a barely audible whisper.

A millisecond later she found herself with an arm full of brown suited Time Lord. His arms wrapped so tightly around her waist, she thought her ribs might break if her squeezed any harder. There were muffled sounds of apologies and promises from where his head was buried in her shoulder. Gingerly, she rubbed his back. They had turned a corner and although the path ahead of them might not be smooth, they would get through it together. Of that she was sure.

"Group hug," came the genial voice of the bow-tied Doctor as he wrapped his arms around both Rose and the other Doctor.

The affect was immediate. The Doctor wrapped tightest around Rose extricated himself from the arms of both Rose and his older self. "I don't want to hug you," he spluttered indignantly.

"I didn't particularly want to hug you either, but I accomplished what I wanted to." He snuggled against Rose and shot his counterpart a look of triumph. Gently, he placed a kiss in her hair and then his eyes went wide. "Hold on, did you say I was gone on the other side of the fireplace for ten hours?"

Rose nodded. "Is that important?'

"I think that it just might be."


	9. Explanations and Conclusions

 

Gently the new Doctor led Rose over to one of the plush sofas near the fire. It was a three seater and he sat her on the end and he took the middle cushion. In exasperation, Rose's current Doctor positioned himself on the arm of the sofa behind her.

One of the pinstriped Doctor's hands found its way to Rose's shoulder and squeezed. Turning slightly so that she could see him, she gave him a reassuring smile.

"Rose, I know this is going to be difficult," the bow-tied Doctor said, taking her hands in his. "But I need you to tell me what happened after I took Arthur and jumped through the time window."

"No," the other Doctor protested. "You shouldn't make her relive that."

"I need to know what the catalyst for the shift in the timeline was." The new Doctor tucked a stray piece of hair behind Rose's ear. "Right now, I don't need all the details, just an overview, generalizations really."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, not wanting to discuss this while having to look at them. His actions still stung and probably would always hurt. And she never wanted to do this at all but this was about the diverging of timelines. This was something that she could do to help, and she would never refuse to help.

"Alright." She licked her lips and closed her eyes. "You jumped through the mirror, and it was about ten hours before you came back. And you were all bubbly and happy."

"Did I go back for her?" the Doctor in tweed asked solemnly.

Rose's eyes snapped up to meet his, and the hand on her shoulder tightened. "You went back for her?" She tried pulling her hands away from the Doctor in front of her.

He tightened his grip. "I went back to offer her a one off trip to thank her for helping me get back to you. But she had died before I got back there. Probably for the best. I have a strong feeling Reinette would have been cyberized on our next adventure. She wasn't built for this life, not like you, Rose."

Rose took a deep breath before continuing. "As far as I know, you never went back. I went to my room as soon as I knew you were back safely. We were in flight a few minutes later. After that we went on adventures, but things were different between us. I wanted to put some distance between us. Because some things aren't worth getting your heart broken for."

The spiky haired Doctor behind her slid down to kneel by her side. "Rose, I am the biggest prat in the Universe and I can't believe how close I came to losing you because of this. I don't think I can tell enough just how sorry I am."

This time Rose did manage to pull her hands free from the future Doctor's and she laid a hand on her current Doctor's face. "Just don't do it again or next time you will lose me."

"Never," the Doctor in pinstripes replied, raising himself up to bring his face level with hers. His eyes darted back and forth between her eyes and her lips. Rose was absolutely sure that he was going to kiss her. Finally, she thought as he started to lean in, and she let her eyelids flutter closed.

"Sorry to interrupt," the other Doctor said, hauling her current Doctor to his feet. "But my timeline is destabilizing as we speak, so we need to get cracking. Now, I need inside our head, Doctor. To try and repair your memories and to pinpoint the exact moment of the split."

The lights in the library flashed menacingly, and Rose acutely felt the time-ship's disapproval. Both Time Lords stared at the ceiling in disbelief.

"Curious," the green eyed man murmured. "I don't think that she likes the idea of us changing the timeline back. Did you do this?" He spun around, eyes darting everywhere as if he was waiting for the TARDIS to answer him. "On purpose."

There was a change the pitch of her humming. The only way to describe it was that she sounded smug. "I think that she did," the Doctor in converse said, sounding awestruck.

"Why, though?" Rose asked, coming to stand between her two Doctors. Each one reached down and took one of her hands. "What was so important that she felt she needed to fix?"

The older Doctor with the younger face squeezed her hand. "You, Rose, she did this to stop me from losing you." He took a deep breath and she turned to face him. "One last question and this one is so very important. January 1st, 2005, you and Jackie were walking through the Powell Estate. She had left and you were heading upstairs... Was there a man in the shadows?"

Rose screwed up her face in concentration, and her current Doctor asked, "Why does that matter?"

"Just trust me, this memory means everything," the future Doctor replied, gently taking Rose by the shoulders. "Was there anyone there? A man that talked to you."

Gently, Rose shook her head and looked up into the Doctor's green eyes. "No, there wasn't. At first I thought maybe. But then it shifted, and I know that I said night to mum and then ran upstairs. There wasn't anyone that I talked to."

The floppy haired Doctor let out a strangled cry of relief and leaned over and stole a quick kiss. Before Rose could react, he was bounding out the door to the library calling back over his shoulder, "Come along, Tyler. I wasn't joking about my timeline unraveling, and I have things to do before I fade from existence."

Rose stood there, completely puzzled as to what had happened to her in his past and why someone who was about to fade from existence sounded so damn chipper. "We should follow him, Doctor," she stated, pulling on the remaining Doctor's hand. He stayed rooted to the spot.

Just as she was about to ask him what was wrong, he hauled her into his arms and kissed her, his lips soft and cool on hers. It made her tingle in the same way the kisses from his future regeneration had.

The thought of the other Doctor made her pull back. As much as she wanted this to happen, this wasn't the time. "Doctor, did you feel the need to do that because you were jealous of your future self?" she teased, giving him a tongue in teeth smile. "Feel the need to stake your claim? Do you want me to rate your techniques?"

A low growl escaped from the Doctor's throat as he began to pull her from the room. "You just wait until we get this sorted and I'll show you technique."

~oOo~

The Doctor shrugged off his tweed jacket as he ran down the corridor, screaming for Mickey, Amy and Rory along the way. Within a few short minutes those three, Rose and the other Doctor joined him in the console room. He held up a hand to forestall any questions that the assembled group.

Snapping his braces first, the Doctor to explain. "We don't have long. Time is being rewritten." Amy began to protest but he cut her off. "If we have any chance of fixing this we need to hurry."

The TARDIS gave another disapproving hum, and the Doctor in his shirt sleeves winked at the time rotor. "I need to take those three, back to their TARDIS and help modify their memories." He pointed at Mickey, Rose and the Doctor. The latter two were standing with their hands clasped tightly together. "Amy, Rory, wait here. Do not wander off. I'll be back in a tick."

He ran out of the door to his ship, and Amy called after him to stop. If he heard her, he paid no heed, and he continued to run in the direction he believed the other TARDIS to be.

"Doctor, do we follow him?" Mickey asked, jerking his head in the direction of the open door.

"Might as well," the Doctor responded, tugging on Rose's hand and grabbing his long brown coat off the rack. "Allons-y."

Once the last version of the Doctor, Rose and Mickey had left the TARDIS, Rory sat down in one of the chairs around the console.

"What are you doing?" Amy asked indignantly. "We should follow them."

"Not this time. If his personal history is being rewritten, then we should stay here and let the two Doctors sort this out. Stay here."

"I don't think so," Amy snorted and walked towards the door which slammed shut in her face. She tugged at them but was unable to open them. "Spoilsport," she said, kicking the doors before begrudgingly walking up the steps and joining her husband in waiting for their Doctor to return. That alien was so going to pay for this when he got back.

~oOo~

Once back inside the familiar console room of her TARDIS, Rose let go of the Doctor's hand. "So you're going to fix this, yeah?" she asked the new Doctor.

"No," he replied with a large grin. "It has been too long since the changes started, and it seems that this was planned by my amazing time and space ship,"

"So you lied to Amy and Rory?" Rose raised an eyebrow in disdain.

"You see, that is why we need her." He pointed at Rose but looked pointedly at the other Doctor. "No one else keeps us in line like Rose. Well, Donna was fairly good at it, too." The last part was said with deep sadness. "The point is that Rose keeps us grounded. She makes us better."

"Of course she does," the Doctor in pinstripes replied, shrugging off his long coat and throwing it over a strut. "That was never a question."

The new Doctor turned his attention back to Rose. "And we love her, very much."

"Quite right too," the other Doctor chimed in. "I've just done a horrible job of showing her lately."

Rose looked down as she blushed with embarrassment at that naked confession.

Clearing his throat, Mickey alerted everyone to his presence, and the tension between Rose and the two Doctors was broken. "I know I'm new at this, but Rose told me 'bout those Reaper things. So shouldn't we do something to change things back? Coz I don't fancy getting eaten by one of those dragon thingies."

Both of the Doctors smirked. "Don't you worry about that, Mickey my boy." The bow tie wearing Doctor clapped a hand on his shoulder. "The Doctor and I will sort that out as soon as we erase yours and Rose's memories of meeting me. Which is a shame because I am, without a doubt, the coolest Doctor."

"You are very cool," Rose said, coming up to straighten his bow tie. "Especially with this. Bow ties are cool."

"I always knew that you would get it." He took her hand and started to sprint away with her. Over his shoulder he called to his counterpart. "Reset Mickey's memories to last night. I'll take care of Rose."

The spiky haired Doctor seethed. "I wish he'd stop doing that."

"Doing what?" Mickey asked. "Running off with Rose? It's not fun when it happens to you, is it?"

"Oh, shut up."

"You know I'm right," Mickey goaded. "At least he's actually you. Not just some alien that swanned off with your girl."

The Doctor ground his teeth and grabbed Mickey's upper arm and began to lead him towards the human's room. "Come on, let's get your memory sorted so I can get that bow-tied buffoon out of my TARDIS." The Doctor chuckled. "Bow-tied buffoon, I like that."

With a snort, Mickey replied, "Just remember, that's who you're gonna be next."

"Watch it or I'll remove more than just the last few hours of your memory. Do you like having control of your bladder?"

Mickey's eyes went wide. "You wouldn't really do that, would you, boss? Come on, I was only taking the mickey out of ya."

The Doctor chuckled. "I hope you like adult nappies."

~oOo~

"I don't like this," Rose sighed, sitting down on her bed.

The Doctor sat down next to her and took her hand. "I know that you don't like people messing with your head. I'm sorry, but this is necessary."

"It's not that." She bit her down on her lip. "After France on a spaceship, I was convinced that you didn't care about me. I was so hurt, and I felt so stupid for letting you walk all over me like that. I'm only just now starting to see that it's because you're an idiot alien git that can't express his feelings and not because you don't lo...care about me."

"Rose, she meant nothing. How could she? I was already so in love with you." He brought a hand up and caressed her cheek.

Turning her head slightly, she kissed his palm. "I see that now. But I'm going to forget everything that has happened today. Back to square one, me not wanting that kind of relationship with you and you with no memory of those events." A tear slid down her cheek. "You'll push too hard and I'll push back. Then I'll ask you to take me home. It's only a matter of time."

A crooked grin formed on his face, once again making him look so young. "I won't lose you, Rose Tyler, not again. So we are going to cheat a little. Okay, maybe a lot. First, I'm sure that I can help my younger version out there regain all of his memories. It should be easy. I can rewrite the neural pathways and bingo bongo, memories restored.

"And secondly, you are not going to forget today's events, not completely. Mickey and the other me wont remember anything but to you, today will seem like a dream. Details will be fuzzy. You won't be able to remember my face, pity that, or anything concrete about Amy and Rory. But you will remember everything that I, this me and that me, have said about the events in France and about how we feel about you. And like most dreams, even what you do remember when you wake up, will fade over time. That me may still have to earn your forgiveness, but I have no doubt that the two of you will work things out."

"You said earlier that the TARDIS did this, rewriting time, so that you wouldn't lose me. Did I... Did I die?" This question had been weighing on her mind for quite a while. If the Doctor loved her the way he said that he did, and if the man in front of her was this adamant about not losing her again, he wouldn't have just let her leave.

The Doctor didn't say anything, just stared at her. Looking away from him, Rose began to ramble. "Young, I mean? Did I die young? It's been three hundred years for you, so of course I'm dead. It's just, the way you talk about losing me... It doesn't sound like I voluntary left you."

"Look at me, Rose." His hand gently tilted her face back towards him. Her brown eyes met his green ones, and she could again see his age. "There was a battle and we won, saved the Earth again, but there was a cost. You, Jackie and Mickey were sealed away in a parallel universe. You lived a fantastic long life, of that I am sure. My precious girl, I wanted to tear apart both universes to get to you. I was never the same without you. I needed you more than I realized."

Gently he kissed her forehead and then hauled her to her feet. "Now change into the jimjams you wore last night, and we can modify your memories."

Rose instinctively knew that he was holding something back, but he had probably already told her more than he should have. If things were going to get better between her and the Doctor, she had to learn to trust him and when to pick her battles. This was one time she would let the secrets lie.


	10. Goodbyes

 

Once she was in her en suite, she found that the TARDIS had set out the night clothes that she had slept in previously. Rose took care to make sure that her makeup was removed as it had been last night and that her hair was pulled back in the same way.

"What if I still don't understand, still don't believe that he loves me?" she asked the TARDIS quietly. The ship hummed back and sent her warm waves of love and sympathy. "I just wish I could remember or leave myself a message. He's already cheating a bit." Biting her lip, Rose knew that it might be a bad idea with horrible consequences. But if she was going to remember in the form of a dream anyway…

Looking down at her vanity, Rose noticed a black erasable marker. "You clever girl," she said patting the wall affectionately. "I still can't believe that you would do all of this, for me. Thank you." Again, the TARDIS hummed her mutual affection to her human.

Rose quickly scribbled a note where she would see it when she woke up. Six words that she hoped would help convince her to change her mind about what France and Reinette had really meant to the Doctor.

After one last look in the mirror, Rose made her way back into her room. The next version of her Time Lord was still sitting on her bed. His jaw was tense as his eyes raked over the tidy, packed state of her belongings. It was probably not how he remembered it. His mind was probably whirling with the possibilities of where their relationship would have gone if they hadn't all ended up here. She had just told him that it was only a matter of time before she left.

"Do you… do you still have my room? On your TARDIS?" She sat down next to him.

"I do. Neither the TARDIS nor I could ever let go of you completely. Although the version of your room that I have is a bit messier, more lived in."

"Do you live in it? Some of that mess is yours, isn't it? There are probably bow ties and converse all over the place," Rose teased, catching her tongue in her teeth. "I bet you sleep in it when you miss me."

He chuckled and pulled her into a hug. "This room is my safe place. I come here when I need to be made better. When I can't figure it out on my own. When I need to know what my Rose would do."

Rose closed her eyes, willing the tears that had formed there not to fall. There was no denying anymore that the flame that she had held for him still burnt brightly. She had tried to stop loving him, and even with everything that he had done to hurt her, she wasn't able to snuff out those feelings.

Right now, in this very moment, this new Doctor's timeline wasn't making a single move to stop it. He was, in fact, embracing it. At any point he could fade from existence, and he was just sitting here with her, just wanting to spend time with her. He was sacrificing himself; letting this regeneration die and all those years apart be rewritten in order to show her how much she truly meant to him.

Plus, he wasn't even going to make her forget this encounter entirely, something that Rose knew could have dire consequences. It showed that he trusted her. It might not make up completely for abandoning her on a spaceship to die but as far as grand gestures went this was a big one.

"I want you to know that I love you, Doctor. Even with everything that has happened over the last few weeks in this timeline. I never was able to stop loving you, and I don't think that I ever will be able to."

She may not be ready yet to make this confession to her current Doctor, they had far too many things to work through. But this Doctor, the one who had loved her and missed her for hundreds of years and was giving up his past for her, deserved to know.

Gingerly, he cupped her face in both his hands and kissed her softly. After a moment he moved his fingers to her temples. Their eyes were closed and their lips still millimeters apart. "Are you ready?"

"As I can be," she replied with a small nod. "Goodbye, Doctor."

"Oh Rose, there is no need for goodbye, because this isn't an ending, it's a new beginning."

"In that case… Hello, my Doctor."

"Hello, my precious Rose Tyler." He closed the scant distance between their lips and kissed her at the same time he entered her mind. Very carefully, he locked away certain aspects of today's events, names and faces that she couldn't know yet. He left her with relevant bits of information and a general over view of today's events, even if the details were fuzzy.

When he was done, she slumped against him, fast asleep. The Doctor laid her down and tucked her underneath her duvet. With one hand he brushed her hair out of her face. Tilting his head towards the ceiling, he whispered to his ship. "Thank you for this."

~oOo~

What was taking so long? Adjusting Mickey's memory had only taken a few minutes. Rose and the other man had been gone nearly half an hour. The Tenth Doctor paced back and forth in front of the console. Rose had seemed to prefer that new version of himself, if the kissing, hugging and touching was any indication. He slumped down into the jump seat and raked his fingers through his hair.

What if they were back there… _dancing?_

An odd feeling of jealousy and self-hatred shot through his hearts. He almost jumped off the chair and resumed his pacing. Rose wouldn't do that. Not with this him out here waiting for the other him. There was no doubt that _he_ would like that very much, or that the older version of the Doctor might use this situation in order to fulfill the desire that had burned through them since sometime around 'There's me'.

That was it. The Doctor was resolved to go and beat down the door to Rose's room, damn the consequences. His feet were moving in the direction of the corridor before he could second guess himself.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked his rather annoying future self. "Did you not get enough alone time with Mr. Mickey?"

"You do realize that by insulting me, you are insulting yourself?" The spiky haired Doctor asked, exasperated, as they both moved back to the console.

"If you want to be technical about it, no, I'm not. You are in a different time stream than I am." This Doctor's hair flopped over his eyes as he began adjusting several of the knobs on the control panel.

Angry, the Doctor in pinstripes slapped the other Doctor's hands away. "Stop touching my ship."

"Our ship," the other man corrected. "And this is necessary. I'm planning on knocking you out and letting Sexy take you back to the Vortex." Moving to the other side of the console, he made a few more adjustments and then turned to his counterpart. "Now let's see about fixing those disconnected synapses of yours. Did you try tea by the way? It's great for the synapses, full of…"

"Free radicals, yes, I know. And of course I tried tea. What do you take me for? Rickey the Idiot?" The two men glared at each other for a long moment before, begrudgingly, the Tenth Doctor stepped in front of the Eleventh. "Let's just get this over with. That way you can leave, and I will never have to see that face of yours again."

"At least not until it's staring back at you from the mirror," the other Doctor replied dryly.

Tired of the condescension and with a healthy dose of self-loathing the Tenth Doctor snapped, "Maybe I'll do a better job of it next time and skip the giraffe in a Maths professor's clothes look that you have going on."

"Rose seemed to like it. In fact, she willingly went on a date with me, even kissed me before she knew who I really was. She seemed more than willing to run away with an alien with a pretty face, with me. Do you realize how easily you could have lost her today?"

"How did you lose her, Doctor? Hmm. Because you said yourself that all of this happening because you lost Rose. So tell me, how you are any better than me? We are after all the same man." This was a psychiatrist's dream right here, a man very literally arguing with himself about which one was the bigger prat.

With a sigh of frustration, he ran a hand through his spiky hair. "This is pointless," he said after a moment. "We need to get on with this." One long finger tapped his temple.

The new Doctor's jaw was set in a hard line. "You're right. We do need to get on with this. But never, ever question me about losing Rose Tyler. She was trapped in another Universe, across the Void, and there was a time that I didn't even care if I collapsed two universes to get her back. So whatever you think losing Rose might be like, multiply it by a million and you may just come close to that sense of loss."

Sorrow, regret and longing filled the Doctor's green eyes. "You know, back when I was you, I used to think that losing Rose was the worst thing that could ever happen. But I was wrong." His gaze fell to the floor. "We pushed her away, kept ourself from moving to the next level of intimacy with her, foolishly believing that it would hurt less when she was gone."

With a sigh, he looked back up at the younger Doctor. "Regret hurts far more than loss. I've had centuries to imagine what I would do if I could change my timeline. And I know one thing. I wouldn't hold back. I would let myself love her and be loved by her completely. Now we have that chance again. Do not mess this up. Today has been a bit overwhelming for Rose, and she may not be as quick to forgive you for our actions in France."

Swallowing hard, the Tenth Doctor nodded. He'd let the older Doctor say his peace without interruption, something he would never normally do, mind, because he wanted to lock away a small piece of this man's hindsight. Just a small piece that could lay quietly in the back of his mind so that this time he wouldn't lose Rose. And so that he would never become the damaged man standing in front of him. "Rose is everything. I'll find a way to earn her trust back."

"Good. Now let's stop wasting time." Eleven pressed his fingers into Ten's temples. "I have a couple of errands to run before my time runs out."

Before the Doctor could question what his older self meant by errands, the man had started to reattach neurons and memories started to return.

_His eyes sought hers over and over again and when he did manage to catch her eye she would immediately look away. His hearts broke more every time it happened._

_..._

_Three days after France on a spaceship he was sitting cross-legged in front of the console, repairing a few wires with his sonic. Rose came in and sat on the jump seat, looking at anything but him. "I may have been a bit hasty before, by not talking to you after... after France on a spaceship. So if you have anything to say, say it now."_

_So many things that he wanted to say were running through his giant brain, but he couldn't force the words out. Finally, after long moments of uncomfortable silence, he managed to splutter, "She wasn't you." And Rose took it the absolute wrong way._

_He tried to fix it. "I mean she was accomplished, refined, beautiful and... and... and." Oh he had just cocked this up royally._

_Tears slid down Rose's cheeks. "Right then, I get it. She was the woman you loved, I'm... Never mind. I get it. Let's just not... anymore." And she ran from the room. He didn't her again again and when he did, she was rewriting her diary._

_..._

_The Doctor had kept them running, trying to distract Rose from what she wrongly believed to be true, that she wasn't the one he wanted. He didn't push to hold her hand anymore even though his fingers ached for hers. He didn't try to bring up France because he knew he would just mess it up again. Well that wasn't entirely true, he'd tried to bring it up again but Rose had simply left the room._

_More than anything, he missed what they had. He missed her, was mourning the loss of their relationship. His grief was written all over his face, but still he didn't reach for her and it was killing him._

_A decision was made. No more letting his real emotions shine through. There was an old Earth saying, fake it till you make it. And he was going to smile and laugh and win Rose over with his charm. Once things were back to normal he would lay everything on the line. Tell Rose everything that had happened and exactly how he felt about her._

_However, the next day they had landed on Amazonia Prime._

The spiky haired Doctor collapsed as the last of his the memories returned. Not so gently the other Doctor maneuvered him onto the jump seat and touched a button on the console that started the countdown to dematerialization. Quickly, he slipped out of his old ship and didn't look back as she began the metal on metal keening sound signaling her departure.

His timeline was slipping away, and he needed to get back to Amy and Rory. There were things to be done before he faded from existence. Before his time was rewritten to include Rose. Never before had ending a timeline sounded this exciting. "Time for new adventures," he whispered to himself. "Geronimo."


	11. Fall Out

Rory's eyes kept flicking from his wife to the front doors of the TARDIS. With every passing moment he knew her anger and frustration were growing by leaps and bounds. She was worried that the Doctor wouldn't be back in time to fix things, worried that after all they had been through, the Doctor would never have been in their lives.

Would it be that bad, though? If things changed? Rory thought back to all the ridicule that Amy endured for her tales of the Raggedy Doctor. Of how many times she was secretly heartbroken because he never came back for her. Then he thought about holding his daughter on Demon's Run. Thought about how his heart had swelled that day with love and all his plans for their future. And how only a few hours later those dreams were lost.

It wasn't the Doctor's fault that she had been raised by monsters and regenerated before she was ten years old; of course it wasn't. But Rory couldn't help but wonder at what life would have been like if after the birth of their daughter they had been able to raise her.

Life with the Doctor was mad and brilliant, scary and exhilarating. Rory valued the experiences they'd had, but he questioned if they were worth what had happened to River. He'd never let himself think about it before. Mostly because he didn't think that changing those events would be possible. Now, however, events in the Doctor's past had started to re-form and it seemed as if the Doctor was going to let them, no matter what he told Amy.

There was no doubt in Rory's mind that if the Doctor had a way to change the past in order to be with Rose that he would. The Doctor was a man in love, deeply in love. It was something that Rory understood. Thinking back on his 2,000 years guarding the Pandorica, he knew what it meant to sacrifice in the name of love.

The doors to the TARDIS slammed open, and the Doctor swaggered inside. He was grinning from ear to ear. Jumping to her feet, Amy ran over and grabbed his arm.

"So it's sorted, yeah? No damage done to the timelines?" she asked, desperation in her voice.

"What?" The Doctor blinked as if he had only just noticed her. Then he shook his head. "No, not sorted yet. Just a few things that I need to take care of. Dangerous things." The Doctor ran to the console and began flicking buttons and turning dials.

"Alright," Rory said, standing up and joining the other two. "What can we do to help?"

"Nothing," the Time Lord replied, not looking up at his companions. "This is something delicate. Something I need to be alone for. I can't have you two mucking about, risking further damage."

"No," Amy said, shaking her head. "We'll come with you. Stay in the TARDIS."

"No," the Doctor replied. "Not this time. I'll take you somewhere. You just can't be there. I need to do this alone."

Rory gently laid a hand on his wife's arm. "We understand, Doctor. Are you dropping us at home?"

Looking up, the Doctor met Rory's eyes. There was something there. An apology and an unrestrained delight, as if Christmas and your birthday were all coming at once. Rory knew that the Doctor wasn't trying to stop this, he was welcoming it.

"Do what you have to do, Doctor. Just… Can you take us to see River? It's been too long since we've seen her and who knows when we'll get to see her again."

The Time Lord's hands stilled on the controls. "Roricus Pondicus, thank you for understanding. Next stop, Luna University."

"Wait, what's going on," Amy demanded. "I'm missing something, aren't I?" Her eyes darted between her husband and her best friend. Neither said anything.

Then the penny dropped. "It's already too late, isn't it? Isn't it?" She clawed at the Doctor's hands, trying to rip them from the controls. She whipped around and faced her husband. "We can't let him do this."

Rory shook his head sadly. "There isn't anything we can do."

Amy screamed and turned away from Rory. "There's always something we can do. There has to be something that you can do. Please Doctor, this is going to rewrite my entire life. There could be no you…No Rory. You have to stop this."

"Amy, I can't." The Doctor grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her into a tight hug. "And even if I could, I wouldn't."

"You promised," she cried, pounding at his back.

"No, I didn't, Amy, and even if I did I would have lied," the Doctor replied, squeezing her tighter. "From the moment we landed here it was already too late. The TARDIS was manipulating the timelines. I'm not sure how she did it, but she arranged it so that Rose stays in this Universe. So that Rose stays here on the TARDIS with me."

"Why?" She pushed out of the Doctor's hug and let Rory wrap an arm around her waist. After several calming breaths, she spoke again. "Why would your ship that called the rest of us strays when she was Idris, arrange things so that one human girl could stay here?"

"Because she needs Rose. Because I need Rose." He looked away from his companions and looked at the time rotor. "I met Rose at my lowest point, right after the Time War. I was a broken soldier, an old man then, and Rose made me better. She challenged me and made me laugh. Being around Rose made me want to live, truly live again. She was so fantastic."

He sighed and straightened his bow tie. "Once Rose, our friend Jack and I were fighting the Daleks. There was no hope of our survival. No matter what I did, everyone would die. Every single Dalek and every single resident on Earth."

He swallowed and looked back at the couple. "I sent Rose away in the TARDIS. Sent her home and told her to have a fantastic life without me. I needed her to be safe, to live on. But Rose didn't want to let me die alone. No, she ripped open the heart of the TARDIS and swallowed Time. She became one with my ship, came back to me and destroyed the Daleks with the wave of her hand."

Amy gasped. "But wouldn't that, I don't know, kill her?"

"Oh, it was going to, she was going to burn with that in her head. So I took it out of her and it killed me instead. That's when I regenerated into that hyperactive chipmunk you met earlier today."

"After that, Rose and the TARDIS shared a special bond. One I was too scared to contemplate. I was scared that something had happened to Rose that I wouldn't be able to stop. So I kept us running to try and forget that one day she would leave."

He looked down at his now wringing hands. "And when I did lose her, I wanted to die. Die and never regenerate. Rose made me better. Made me want to be better. I need her. It's never been the same without her."

Closing his eyes, he felt his memories start to diverge and new ones form. There were suddenly glimpses of a stronger connection between his ship and Rose. His eyes widened. The TARDIS hadn't just changed the timeline, she had strengthened the bond between them. What else had his ship done?

There wasn't much time left in this timeline. He needed to be alone when it happened. As much as he wanted these changes to happen, he couldn't watch Amy and Rory fade from existence. He quickly finished setting the coordinates and landed his magnificent ship with only the slightest of bumps.

"Doctor, are you sure there's nothing left for you to do?" Amy asked one last time.

Sadly he shook his head. "Amelia Pond, you are my best friend. But Rose is," he took a deep breath and looked between the husband and wife. "Rose Tyler is my Rory."

By now Amy was crying but something on her face shifted. Finally, she understood. "Time for you to go," she said, throwing her arms around his neck. "Goodbye, Raggedy Man." Quickly, she let go and ran out the doors.

"Good luck, Doctor," Rory said, giving the other man a quick hug before turning to leave.

"You too, Mr. Williams," the Doctor said behind him, but Rory didn't bother to turn around.

Once outside the TARDIS, Rory wrapped his arms around his wife. His cheek rested against hers as he stared out the window. The view of the Earth from the moon was always spectacular. "It'll be alright," he whispered as the ship dematerialized behind him. "Don't worry."

"What if this changes things between us," Amy said tearfully.

He shook his head. "I knew you before you met the Doctor, and I didn't love you because of him. I love you for you. I'll still love you." Amy didn't reply; instead she just wrapped herself tighter around him.

After several minutes they hear the click clack of heels rushing across the marble floor. "Well, hello," River's voice came from across the foyer. "I thought I heard the TARDIS. But where's the Doctor?"

"Um, he's not here," Amy replied, wiping the tears from his face. "He had an important thing that he needed to do alone."

"And he thought we'd like a visit with our daughter," Rory finished.

Something in River's face softened. "Well, it's always nice to have a visit with Mum and Dad. Come on, let's grab a drink. They have a nice pub just off campus."

~oOo~

Several drinks later, River ran a finger around the rim of her martini glass. "Alright, what's really going on here? Something feels off here, and the two of you look like you're in mourning. Why are you really here?"

Rory took in a deep breath and looked to Amy, who nodded. "We met someone today. Someone from the Doctor's past."

"Someone really important to him," Amy added.

Her interest now piqued, River leaned forward. "Really, who?" As an archeologist, she had done her homework on the Time Lord. Following his stories across time and space, she knew the names and stories of almost all of his companions. "There are lots of companions I've always wanted to meet. Jack Harkness being on the top of that list," she purred as she said the name of the former Time Agent.

"No, it wasn't Jack," Rory said hesitantly.

"Oh, Sarah Jane then." River clapped her hands together. "Or maybe Jamie, what about Barbara and Ian. It would be brilliant to meet some of the people the Doctor traveled with in his early regenerations."

"This was someone who traveled with him later." Amy squeezed her husband's hand. "The Doctor said that she travelled with him after the war."

River's face fell. "Was she blonde?" Her parents nodded. Closing her eyes, River asked her next question very slowly. "You met Rose Tyler, didn't you?"

"Yeah, we did." Amy chuckled. "Your father was practically flirting with her."

"I was not," Rory protested. "She seemed upset, and I was just trying to help."

"She was pretty and nice; you were a little bit smitten," Amy teased, a genuine smile forming on her face. "Did the Doctor ever talk to you about her?" she asked, looking at her daughter.

"No, he never talks about Rose. I don't even know what happened to her, other than being listed amongst the dead at the Battle of Canary Wharf. And I know there is more to that story." River's fingers flexed, curling them into fists before forcing herself to lay them flat on the table. "What was she like?" Her voice was low and controlled.

"Rose? She seemed nice enough," Amy replied thoughtfully. "Laughed a lot while she was at the carnival with our Doctor. He fawned all over her, too. I've never seen him like that, so light and happy. Then when the other Doctor showed up and we all ended up in the TARDIS, the two Doctors and Rose disappeared for a long time."

"When they came back," Rory said, continuing the story. "The Doctor, the other Doctor in the brown suit, Rose and Mickey all went back to the other TARDIS to erase memories of today's events."

Clenching her jaw, River let out a long slow breath. "How was he afterward? Why did he drop you off here?"

Amy and Rory shared a long look. Rory shook his head and mouthed the word no. In typical fashion, Amy rolled her eyes and ignored him. "The Doctor was a little sad but mostly happy, and he brought us here to say goodbye because something happened to the timeline. Something that the Doctor can't and won't fix. Time is being rewritten, and everything could change. I'm sorry."

"He can't do this! He can't just erase everything. Not for her." River's hands trembled and she tried to punch in coordinates on her Vortex Manipulator. "I'll stop him. I'll find a way to stop this."

Firmly, Rory grabbed her wrist. "No, you're not going anywhere. This is for the best."

"But the Doctor," River's voice trembled. "He's my whole world. I can't lose him. I don't know who I'd be without him."

Deftly, Rory slipped the Manipulator off her wrist and handed it to Amy. "Don't you think that you deserve to find out?"

"I can't…" River closed her eyes, and Amy moved over to hug her. Soon Rory had his arms wrapped around both of his girls. New memories began to form in the deep recesses of River's mind, happy childhood memories. Love, laughter, Christmas trees, two parents, a baby brother, growing up in the same sleepy little village that her parents had. There was a boy there too, her best friend, a little bit older, ginger, gangly, boisterous laugh, someone who really understood her.

River fought against the changes. Pushing them away, not willing to give up her entire life. But there wasn't anything she could do to stop them. A small part of her sighed in relief as the new memories, the new life swirled around her, and in the blink of an eye, River Song was no more.


	12. Begging Forgivness

 

Rose's head felt weird when she woke up. Her mind was furiously processing just about the strangest dream she had ever had, and that was saying something. This life of hers had given her several almost incomprehensible dreams. Last night's, though, she would have sworn was real, even if the details were fuzzy.

She'd met the Doctor again, but not her first or second Doctor. This was a future Doctor. A man several centuries older and somehow (probably a quirk of that regeneration) able to tell her that he was in love with her. Even after all that time.

In her dream, both that new Doctor and her current one had kissed her. And that's how she knew it was simply a dream. Although for some reason the dream had helped to abate those feelings of deep-seated hurt she felt towards the Doctor. They weren't gone completely. There was still pain and heartbreak, but it seemed that they had dulled.

Maybe this was a sign that they were at a turning point in their relationship. They may never get back to where they were before _she_ happened but maybe they could find a new normal. Somewhere between the distance they been having lately and the flirty, touchy feely banter they had before. She still wasn't ready to risk her heart again.

Shaking her head in an attempt to clear it, she sat up. Time to face the day. Walking to her en suite, she wondered what the Doctor had planned for them today. Hopefully, it was a run for your life adventure. With a snort of derision, Rose remembered something that Reinette had said to her.

_"You and I both know, don't we, Rose? The Doctor is worth the monsters... One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel."_

The courtesan had thought she understood him and his life. The Doctor was certainly not angel, not even close, and the monsters were half the fun. Both Rose and the Doctor thrived on the excitement.

Another foggy memory filled her mind, a conversation with the future Doctor. _"I have a strong feeling Reinette would have been cyberized on our next adventures. She wasn't built for this life, not like you, Rose."_

A shiver ran down her spine. She had no idea what being cyberized meant, but it sounded awful. The sentiment was appreciated, though.

Picking up a dry flannel, Rose ran it under the tap and began to wash her face. She looked up to begin her morning routine and promptly dropped the cloth. On the mirror were six words written in an impossibly familiar handwriting, her very own handwriting.

_Not just a dream, a memory._

Did that mean… Did that mean what she thought it meant? That everything that happened in her dream last night was real and that the Doctor had then had to modify her memories?

Before she could wrap her mind around the implications of that, she noticed more words written on her mirror. These were in an unfamiliar, untidy scrawl.

_More cheating?_

_Naughty girl, Rose Tyler._

_I like it._

_Love from the (future) Doctor_

Rose started to giggle. Only the Doctor could be that ridiculously flirty in a secret message left on the mirror in her loo. Her giggles transformed into deep chuckles as her fingers traced the words _Love_ and _Doctor._ Soon tears were streaming from her eyes. She wasn't sure if it was because of the fact that she was laughing so hard or because of the implications.

Somehow, someway she had met a future version of the Doctor yesterday. And instead of wiping or locking away the memory, Rose was sure that that was standard operating procedure, she had been allowed to remember. The future Doctor had trusted her not to say anything to the current Doctor. She also vaguely remembered something about memories fading.

Now she was doubled over with laughter. This was so typical of her Doctor. He'd screwed up (twice since there were two Doctors in this adventure), landed them into some impossible scenario, bumbled his way to a resolution and then took the loopiest way he could to a resolution.

Although, this was probably the fastest, most logical way to have her begin to forgive him for the incidents on the spaceship. Her laughter immediately stopped. Even though she had just had two Doctors, one three hundred years later, confessing their love and devotion, she still needed to hear it from this current one. Needed him to tell her flat out that he hadn't been with Reinette and needed him to promise that this would never happen again.

"Rose?" The Doctor's voice called softly from outside of the door. "Rose, are you in there? Can we talk?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Just give me a mo'." Quickly she scrubbed her face with the flannel again so that he wouldn't see the tear tracks. That was something she didn't want to explain right now. She also used the cloth to erase her message and most of the most of the Doctor's.

For another long moment, she stared at the word _love,_ searing it into her heart, not wanting to forget that he'd written it there but knowing that she had to let the memories fade. Sucking in a deep, calming breath she wiped away the final word and turned towards the door. Yesterday she'd gotten caught up in the moment kissing both Doctors, but with this one here she needed to get it right, slow down a little. Time to start the healing before she and her current Doctor could take any big steps forward. She needed to take things slowly.

~oOo~

The Doctor woke with a start on the jump seat in the console room. He didn't remember falling asleep. He didn't even remember being tired, but he did remember some things. Lots of things really, he remembered everything he'd forgotten.

Slumping back down into the jump seat, he caught his head in his hands. It was awful, the remembering. The full weight of his actions, of his betrayal to Rose hit him like a locomotive. He had been an idiot, a grade a prat, a twat, a git, a… a… a… a person who didn't deserve another chance with Rose.

Good gods, how was he going to fix this? He'd tried several times making a fool of himself and hurting her in the process. How could he have been so stupid as to lead with _She's not you_? And then he proceeded to list Reinette's attributes instead of telling Rose all the things he loved about her that Reinette didn't have. And to not go after her when Rose had misunderstood.

He was surprised she'd only rewritten her journal, shut him out of her room and packed in anticipation of him chucking her out. Not that he would ever do that. In fact, if she ever actually tried to leave, he would be holding onto one of her legs, groveling and begging her not to leave him. A few weeks with her keeping him at arm's length was horrendous. He missed her desperately, and he was determined to get back into her good graces.

A small bleeping noise sounded from the view screen. Jumping to his feet, he crossed the short distance quickly. He pulled the screen around to see if there was some sort of distress signal coming in. If there was, it would have to wait until he could have a nice long chat with Rose. There were some advantages to having a time and space ship.

Maybe the old girl could give him a hand by locking him and Rose alone in a room; that way she couldn't slip away this time.

"What?" he whispered, his jaw dropping when he finally read the message on the view screen. "What?" he squeaked, a little louder this time. The message was written in circular Gallifreyan.

_The pain of regret amplifies the pain of loss. No more regrets._

"What?" His voice reverberated around the room. "Who sent this?" he demanded, sending a quizzical look at the time rotor. "Did you send this?"

A tittering laugh filled his head. Was his TARDIS trying to play matchmaker? A self-satisfied hum reverberated around the room.

"How did you do this?" His eyes were wide with wonder. "All these years and you've never communicated this directly before. This must be important to you." He laid a hand gently in the console, and his fingers were promptly singed. "Ow!" He stuck the damaged digits into his mouth. "What was that for?"

The lights leading down the corridor to Rose's room flickered. Right, figure out the mystery of the TARDIS making direct communication later. First he needed to talk to Rose and possibly grovel at her feet and beg forgiveness.

He ran flat out all the way to her door. His knuckles rapped on the wood, just below the intricately carved rose.

There was no answer. Hoping she wouldn't be angry, he turned the knob and pushed open the door. She wasn't in her bed or anyplace else that he could see. There was a copious amount of laughter coming from her bathroom.

His hearts beat a little faster. Oh, how he loved hearing her laugh. He loved making her laugh even more. But what if she wasn't in there alone? What if Mickey was in there?

She abruptly stopped laughing, and he crossed the room in a few steps. Stepping up next to the door, he pressed his ear against the wood. There was no noise coming from that room except for Rose's uneven breathing.

"Rose?" he said, just loud enough for her to hear him. "Rose, are you in there? Can we talk?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Just give me a mo'," she called back to him.

He scrambled away from the door, not wanting her to think that he was trying to invade her space. Without thinking, he sat down on her bed. He could still feel latent heat from the spot where she had slept. Immediately, his head was filled with delightfully inappropriate thoughts. Well, not so much inappropriate as much as ill timed. Maybe, if he was lucky, and if he could convince Rose to forgive him they could… try out a few of his ideas.

Where were these thoughts coming from? His trousers were inexplicably tighter than they were a moment ago. And that was enough of sitting on Rose's bed. Leaping to his feet, he went to stand next to her bureau.

"What's up?" Rose asked, stepping into her room. Her face was still clean of make-up and her hair was pulled up in a bun.

"So beautiful." The words fell from his mouth before he could stop them.

"What did you say?" She arched an eyebrow and stared at him. Almost daring him to repeat himself.

No regrets, he thought as he smiled at her. "I said that you are so beautiful. Especially like this. Rose au naturale."

"Not completely au naturale." She caught her tongue in her teeth and grinned. "I've still got my clothes on."

"Pity," he replied, taking a step towards her.

Her face fell slightly, and she stepped back. It had been far too easy to fall back into old patterns, and she was determined to make them work through their issues from now on. "Doctor, are you feeling alright? Or did you just come in here to get in good flirt before we go on an adventure. Oh god, did you ingest some sort of alien aphrodisiac? Or did you lose your memories again?"

"No, no, no, no, no, no. Actually, that's what I came to tell you." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "I feel asleep, woke up and poof all my memories are back."

"All of them?" she asked tentatively. This was going to be his chance to tell her everything, and it was up to him to take it.

"Oh, Rose, I was such a fool. Such a coward. And I don't know how I can ever get you to forgive me." He stepped closer to her and dropped to his knees, his head bowed in submission. She sucked in a startled breath at the sight of the last of the Time Lords literally on bended knee, groveling at her feet.

"I don't deserve you or your forgiveness. But I need to tell you that I didn't really love her. I was fascinated with her. She was pretty and thought she completely understood me so she didn't push to know more. It was cowardly and moronic and… and… and I was scared. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, and I know that things may never go back to the way things were because abandoning you was awful.

"And you have to know I came straight back to you, the moment I could fix the fireplace. I would have done anything to get back to you. I didn't stay there with her. Even though she asked me to stay, begged me to stay. I wanted you. I chose you, but the damage was done. I'd already lost you." He slowly took in a deep breath to steady himself. "I've missed you so much. Even if you've been right here, it wasn't the same."

Rose tenderly laid her hand on top of his head, her fingernails lightly scraping his scalp as she ran her hands through his hair. He stifled another sob. "Why did you push me away? What were you so scared of, Doctor?" she murmured, stroking his hair.

Pulling back slightly, he looked up and met her eyes. "I," he sobbed, "I love you." He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his cheek against her stomach.

Her eyes widened and she gasped. "Quite right, too."

"Please don't leave me. Let me prove to you how I feel," he begged. "I'll do anything, Rose. Please just stay. We can be friends. The best of friends, I'll show you the Universe and never ask for anything more than your company. Just please unpack your bags and stay here."

There was a long moment of silence before she spoke again. "Doctor, if I stay, you have to promise me that you won't do that again." She tried to pull back and get him to look her in the eyes. His grip just tightened. "You can't push me away anymore. I want to stay here, but if you leave me for another woman again... If you keep abandoning me, leaving me behind, I won't stay. I can't. I deserve better, more."

He didn't say anything, and Rose thought that she had pushed too hard. Then he spoke again, very softly. "I want to give you more, Rose but it scares me in a way I've never been scared before. And I'll always want you safe, but I promise I'll do my best and I'll even let you slap me if I do anything to hurt you again."

She chuckled. "Your face may hurt for weeks at a time if I keep slappin' ya. Maybe we should just go back to Amazonia Prime when you misbehave. A couple days where you have to obey my every command might be nice."

A shiver of excitement at that prospect ran through his body. "Whatever it takes to keep you in my life, Rose. I kept the 'Property of Rose Marion Tyler' tattoo so that would make visiting easier." He rolled up his sleeve to show her, and she grinned.

"Doctor, I'll stay," she laughed, tugging on his arms until he stood before her, his hands on her waist. Her arms looped around his neck and he pressed his forehead into hers, their noses grazing one another's.

His tongue darted out to wet his lips. "I have the oddest feeling that I promised to show you my technique," he murmured and her eyes widened. Before she could say anything he leaned in to kiss her. It would have been so easy to just let this happen.

Just before his lips touched hers, she turned her head and they landed on her cheek.

"Not yet, Doctor," she said softly. Disappointed, he tried to pull back but she wouldn't let him retreat. "I need time. I've wanted this for so long and if, no, when it happens I want it to be right. We'll take things one day at a time, yeah?"

He nodded. "Can we go back to holding hands and hugging for now? I really miss those bits, running hand in hand across the Universe, hugging for no reason. Unless you think that would be too much for now."

"I think we can manage hugging and hand holding. Maybe even a little bit of cuddling." She grinned and caught her tongue in her teeth. His hands tightened on her waist, and she snuggled against him.

_The TARDIS felt the relief and happiness of her Thief and her Wolf and it mingled with her own. The hardest part of the Journey was behind them now. There was still work to be done and it would be tricky. But her faith was strong; this was the path they were meant to be on. Her calculations were perfect and now it was time to guide her crew through the tear between the wall between universes._


	13. The Begging of the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on out, most of the action in these chapters will be the Doctor watching his memories being rewritten.

 

The doors to the TARDIS flew open, and the Eleventh Doctor ran outside. He had chosen this planet carefully. This was where Rose had promised him forever back when they had been foolish enough to believe that her forever would be that easy to give. But now he was going to get a second chance.

Purposely, he kept his back to his glorious time and space ship. He didn't want to watch as she faded from this reality and into a new one. The TARDIS had given him an enormous gift by rewriting the timelines, and he had come here to let himself slowly slip away.

He had known from the moment that Rose didn't remember seeing him, talking to him, on New Year's Eve that time had changed and he couldn't stop. It meant that he had never gone back, most likely because he didn't need to.

He also knew he wouldn't have much time left and had hurried though explanations to Rose. Even though he would have liked to spend his last moments with her wrapped in his arms. But he didn't want to put her through that.

Now that he was alone, he could simply revel in each new memory as it formed.

…

After he had come to her when he had regained his memories, they had cuddled for a while before Rose had shooed him out so she could get dressed. Very soon she and Mickey had joined him in the console room. His arm was draped over the back of the jump seat, his long fingers surreptitiously touching her shoulder. They were reminiscing, and she was laughing. Mickey was holding down a button on the ships controls. A button that the Doctor had forgotten he was holding for twenty minutes, maybe twenty-nine.

And then they fell through the Void, landing in a very different London, and not just because of the zeppelins in the air or because Pete Tyler was inexplicably still alive here. No, this London was different because they had landed six months after Lumic had launched his Cybermen upon this world.

Lumic's creations had almost taken over Britain and were spreading across the planet. There was a small band of resistance led by none other than Pete Tyler.

His Jackie had perished that first night, but he'd then joined together with the Preachers. They had rounded up all the people who hadn't been wearing ear pods that day and were keeping them safe.

The Doctor had offered whatever help he could, but nothing seemed to work; unable to gain access to Lumic's stronghold and activate the Cybermen's emotions, all hope seemed lost. The Doctor offered to relocate the group of around 100 back to the other Universe. Pete had declined, wanting to stay and save his world even though he knew it probably would mean that he would die in the struggle. Rose had protested and the truth about who Pete Tyler was to her was revealed and that her Jackie was still alive.

It didn't make a difference. Pete still refused to abandon his planet. There may well be people still out there alive and needing a chance to live. Pete Tyler wasn't going down without a fight.

There was, however, one last piece of advice that the Doctor could give before they had to leave. The Cybermen in the prime universe always had an adverse reaction to gold. It wasn't much, but it gave them a chance at survival.

Rose had cried for an hour once they had made it back to their Universe. "Why didn't he want me?" she asked sobbing.

"Oh Rose, if he knew you, really knew you, he never would have let you go," the Doctor replied, holding her the entire time, gently stroking her back and pressing kisses into her hair. When she felt up to it, he took her and Mickey back to visit Jackie.

Mickey decided not to leave with them when the TARDIS took off for another adventure. He didn't want to be a third wheel on what was shaping into the Doctor and Rose's reconciliation. With an obligatory warning to the Doctor to take care of Rose because he certainly didn't deserve her, Mickey set off for bigger and better things.

…

After that the Doctor took Rose to several pleasure planets for shopping and pampering at some of the luxury spas. On the third planet, he took her out for dinner and dancing, and at the end of the night she had kissed him. Just a quick, almost chaste, press of their lips together but it held the promise of more to come.

At bedtime the next night, Rose brought him the Goblet of Fire and asked that he read to her. Ecstatically, he bounded into her room, toed off his trainers and threw his jacket over the back of a chair. This time when Rose kissed him it was a little longer and a little more passionate than the last one. She ended it before things escalated. His voice was still slightly shaky when they climbed into bed and she snuggled into his side.

The following day, the Doctor wanted to take her to see Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show. Instead she had lost her face to a crazy alien and he had almost lost her, again. When his arms wrapped around her in celebration of finding her again, the words I love you tumbled from his mouth. He didn't regret saying them, and his hearts swelled when she whispered them back to him. "I love you too, Doctor. So much."

…

Next came more adventures, more lingering hugs and increasingly passionate kisses. The Doctor was now welcome in her bed every night. Still just to sleep, she insisted. Nonetheless, he was gently pressing on their boundaries by slipping beneath the duvet wearing one less piece of clothing than the night before. He was more or less down to only his pants when they landed on Krop Tor.

In one of the empty crew bunks that night, they made love for the first time, slowly and reverently. They may have lost the TARDIS, but they had each other. It was everything he thought it would be and more, so much more. It was everything. Clinging to her in the dark, listening to the generators steady thrumming noise, he drew words in Gallifreyan on her skin: arkytior, forever, mine, yours, never leave me.

He clung tighter to her when the beast said that she would die in battle. Told her that of course the beast had lied. Her timelines were in flux; danger was coming. There was no way he could bear to lose her. Not now, not ever. If there was one thing that he believed in it was his Rose.

It was selfish to keep her to himself. Floating through the Vortex. Spending hours, days in bed with her. Sometimes they would shag, sometimes they would just talk, mostly about nothing of consequence, or he would just braid her hair. But he spent every moment in awe that they could now have this. He had just finished twin plaits when Jackie called about some man stalking her to get to the Doctor and Rose.

As angry as she was at Elton, Rose still felt compassion for the young man. It reminded the Doctor, once again, how much he needed her. Truthfully, later that night after tea with Jackie, he showed her just how bottomless his need was.

The next morning he was in such a daze from her flexibility and stamina that he parked the TARDIS facing a bin. You can't take the love of your lives to the Olympics and park facing a bin. It was undignified. He told her they had landed on a dangerous planet, and they had to leave immediately. Her giggles told him she didn't believe him for a second, but she let him keep his dignity, this time, by not mentioning it.

He was surprised by her words about children being right terrors. On several adventures she had warmed up to many children and them to her. (As it turned out, her mother had pestered her about birth control on their last visit.)

It wasn't just an unintentional slip up when he mentioned having been a father before, more of an opening to a conversation. Knowing that Rose would push to know more and that as much as he wanted to tell her everything, sometimes he had to be pushed to talk about the things that hurt the most. For the first time in a long time, maybe ever, he wanted to let someone in.

…

For months, they flitted around time and space. Everywhere he went, he made sure that Rose was on his arm and that people knew that they belonged to each other. Together they got arrested, brought down dictators, saved planets and that was just the bits in between. He took her to a planet deserted of life except for what Rose called 'flying dinosaur things'.

He asked her a question and held his breath for an answer. "How long are you going to stay with me?"

She didn't hesitate when she replied, "Forever."

For several long moments they stood there smiling contentedly at one another, and then he spirited her away again. There was a very long detour to the bedroom before finding more trouble to sort out.

Finally it was time to visit Jackie. With the bezoolium tucked in Rose's pocket, they landed on the Powell Estate and were met with an army of ghosts.

Mickey and Jackie had followed them back to the TARDIS. As it turned out, Mickey had been doing some freelance investigating.

"It's this place called Torchwood," the young man explained. "Top secret, hush-hush but it's them behind it. I just know it."

It didn't take long to hone in on the source of the disturbances causing the ghosts, and it was in fact Torchwood. With Rose's help, the Doctor set in the coordinates for the building at Canary Wharf. But instead of landing in one of the large underground storage rooms, the TARDIS wedge herself tightly into a closet.

There was barely enough room for the Doctor to extricate himself from the open door. Jackie was a little more of a squeeze when the Doctor pulled her out, introducing her as Rose to the room full of gun-wielding nutters.

He let them lead him and Jackie away, shooting a quick look over his shoulder at Rose. With the one eye that was showing through the slightly ajar door, she gave him a wink.

Yvonne Hartman seemed eager to show off what they had done in the name of Queen and Country. The Doctor was nowhere near impressed; in fact he was disgusted when she told him about using the spatial disturbance as a power source.

Then came the Cybermen and the Daleks. His hearts beat double time when he thought about Rose trapped in that room with his greatest enemy.

"What happened to Rose?" Jackie's question reverberated in his mind. He didn't know, and that scared him more than facing five million Cybermen. He promised to that he would get them all out, save them all.

Then Jackie and Yvonne were taken away and the Doctor was horrified. The thing about Jackie was that as annoying he found her in the beginning, she had become part of his family. He settled against the window, his brain moving in a million directions. There was a solution he knew it.

"You are proof," the Cyberleader told him.

"Of what?" he asked slightly confused.

"That emotions destroy."

He thought of Rose and how he would feel if he lost her now. He wouldn't have missed his time with her for anything; a small grin flitted across his face. "Yeah, I am. Mind you, I quite like hope. Hope's a good emotion." There was a flash of light and Pete Tyler, Jake Simmonds (one of the Preachers they had met in the other universe) and a handful of people appeared in the room. "And here it comes."

The Doctor barely had time to duck before guns were blazing and the Cybermen in the room were destroyed. It didn't take Pete long to explain that they had lost; his Earth was forfeit to the Cybermen.

When Lumic's creations realized that they lacked the technology to expand across the galaxy, they found a way to come here. Pete had followed hoping to seek the Doctor's help once more. All that was left of the resistance were few people left in this room. There was guilt in Pete's voice when he asked if they could take the Doctor up on his offer of asylum.

"So many lives I could have saved had I accepted the first time," Pete said a little sadly.

The Doctor clapped him on the back and told him to fight to save this world in their names. Picking up the phone, he called Jackie; thankfully she was still alive.

Then it was on to saving Rose and Mickey, the Genesis Ark being activated, rescuing Jackie and reuniting her with Pete, and seeing millions of Daleks fill the skies of London. Then, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, they found themselves in the lever room. A plan was formulating in his head. It was dangerous, and it could end up getting them all killed. There was no safe place to send her right now.

 _I could save the world but lose you._ He thought of Rose; his words from so long ago haunting him now as he stared at that cold, blank, white wall.

"So what's the plan?" Mickey asked.

Turning around, he switched to manic mode, explaining his plan about sucking the Daleks and Cybermen into Hell, dancing adorably in front of Rose and taking pot shots at Jackie. Rose was giggling and bouncing along with his explanation until the penny dropped.

They were all covered in Void stuff, everyone but Jackie. "Won't we get sucked in?" Rose asked, her voice tentative.

He hadn't quite worked that bit out yet, he admitted. Holding up the Magna Clamps he'd grabbed from downstairs, he suggested holding on for dear life. But they would only hold 4, maybe 5 people at a squeeze. Not the dozen or so that were covered in Void stuff. There was a very good chance that some of them might not make it.

His brilliant Rose had an idea: the TARDIS. Torchwood had been unable to extricate her from the closet she had parked herself in just two floors down. After the Doctor confirmed that the ship wouldn't be pulled into the Void, Mickey began to corral everyone to the back stairs. He had tried to send Rose with them to keep her safe. As always, she refused and wouldn't be talked out of staying. Before he left, Jake pulled two lengths of climbing rope out of the knapsack he was wearing, saying as he did that it wouldn't hurt for them to properly secure themself to the clamps in case their grips slipped.

And oh, how that would come in handy very soon. Her name was ripped from his lips when she lost her grip on the lever. It just had to be her lever that failed. Why couldn't it have been his? Bile rose in his throat as he watched her being drawn into the Void, into Hell. When the rope snapped and held her in place he felt like crying.

The Void sealed itself only a few minutes later, and the Doctor rushed to her side. Her abdomen was tender from the tug-of-war she had been in. That was an injury he could tend to later; for now he just wanted to hold her and prove to himself that she was alive and still here with him.

His mind kept repeating words, not even fully formed thoughts. Mine. Forever. Not lost. Stay. Too close. Much too close. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Rose leading him back to the TARDIS. The adventure wasn't over quite yet. There was still some clean up to be done. And this time, the Doctor would have no choice but to stick around.


	14. More Changes In Store

In the aftermath of Canary Wharf, Jackie decided that she didn't want to stay in London anymore. Several people that she had known from the Estate had died in the battle, and she felt like she needed a clean state. With Pete.

Besides, staying in London with Pete would rouse too many suspicions. So with help from the Doctor, they relocated to the small country village of Leadworth. And using the extra gold that Pete had brought with him from fighting the Cybermen, they bought a small house. Jackie eventually opened a beauty salon and was the main source of small town gossip. Pete, along with Mickey and Jake, opened a computer repair shop that also doubled as a high tech security firm. They mostly sold home defense system developed using the more advanced tech from the other universe. They even helped the handful of other survivors of Lumic's attack on their planet settle into new lives.

Rose had convinced the Doctor to stay with her mum for a few days to help them settle. The Doctor was itching to run from the moment they landed in that small town. And he was so distracted by his thoughts of almost losing Rose to the Void that he didn't notice the stunned redheaded teenager who had seen his ship materialize out of thin air.

When Rose had finally consented to leave, after making him promise to bring her back to visit soon, the Doctor spun the ship into the Vortex. His arms wrapped around her waist, and he buried his head in the crook of her neck.

"I thought I was going to lose you. If Jake hadn't suggested using the ropes…"

"Shh, I'm here now, Doctor." Her fingers stroked the nape of his neck. "I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never gonna leave you."

And he knew that she meant it. Whenever Rose Tyler made a promise, she would do anything, even the impossible, to keep it.

Gently, she took him by the hand and led them to their bedroom. They didn't leave it for almost two days.

...

In next to no time, they were running across the Universe once more. There were so many different planets and time periods to visit and no time to waste. One day on what was thankfully not a naked Sunday (although as Rose pointed out this was a time machine, every day could be naked Sunday), a loud redhead in a wedding dress appeared in the console room mid-flight.

Donna Nobel was also brash and demanding. Of course Rose loved her and the Doctor wanted nothing more than to be rid of her. But could it be as simple as taking her back to the church? No! There was the TARDIS and Rose not feeling well, pilot fish, the Racnoss and Huon particles.

When he had activated the Huon particles in Donna in that underground lab, Rose had glowed too. He started to panic, and she shook her head. "Later, Doctor. We'll sort this out later," Rose said, waving a hand around to indicate the glow.

Forcing himself to focus on the immediate danger, the Doctor made fairly quick work of the Queen of the Racnoss. He gave her one chance to end this, to take her children and leave Earth. She refused and regretfully the Doctor destroyed them, another genocide on his hands.

Rose and Donna pulled him out of his stupor, and the rapidly flooding room. They had drained the Thames and, while the Doctor laughed, he was worried about what had happened to Rose. She held his hand tightly as they took Donna home, and the redhead declined their invitation to travel with them. Goodbyes were said and Rose told Donna that she hoped to see her again.

Once inside, he spun them into the Vortex and rushed Rose to the med bay. He ran every test he could think of while Rose sat anxiously on the examination table. "Impossible," he whispered once he had his results in hand. There wasn't one single thing wrong with her. Not even the tiniest hint of a sniffle, and her rate of cellular decay had slowed to almost nothing.

Rose wasn't aging, or she was but at an impossibly slow rate.

"Guess you really are stuck with me now," she joked and he closed his eyes and for the first time allowed himself to think of the possibility of a forever with Rose. He swore that he heard the TARDIS chuckle in his head. The Doctor took her to bed, not sure if he was celebrating what he may have gained or mourning what Rose hadn't realized that she would yet lose. Everyone she cared about would wither and die. Except him. And a small part of him still hoped that he would be enough for her.

...

Soon enough they were back to adventuring, on their own for a while, just enjoying the time they had alone together, while still managing to visit Jackie and Pete every few weeks. One of those visits included a small wedding in the back garden, and this time Pete got Jackie's name right.

Then they were investigating plasma coils at Royal Hope Hospital. Rose checked in, and the Doctor listed her as his wife. It was the first time he'd done this. He told her that of course it was so that he could stay the night there and investigate. But he smiled at the thought of Rose as his wife. It simultaneously thrilled and terrified him.

They met Martha Jones, and she brilliantly helped them save a thousand lives. One trip as a thank you is what they offered her, and it turned into so much more.

Shakespeare had been smitten with both Rose and Martha, and once again the Doctor called her his wife. Yes, he was possessive of her and wanted to stake his claim. Regardless of what he called her-girlfriend, life-mate, wife, partner- she was unavailable to other men, women or any other sentient life forms.

Luckily, Rose took it in stride, playing her part well. And she got just a little possessive herself when one of the witches started flirting with him. He loved it when she got jealous, not that she had even the slightest thing to be jealous of. His hearts were hers and always would be.

With a little help from the words of another famous author, they defeated the witches and saved the Earth once more. The next morning, the Doctor and Rose were talking excitedly about meeting Shakespeare and battling witches and comparing that to Dickens and ghosts. The Bard was flirting with Martha, writing sonnets about her, when Queen Elizabeth barged in and declared the Doctor and Rose as enemies of the state and the group was forced to flee.

...

They were off into time and space again very soon. In what he thought would be a romantic gesture, the Doctor made a return trip to New Earth. It didn't turn out as planned what with Martha getting kidnapped and seeing the Face of Boe again. In 1920's New York they met the Daleks yet again. There had been a sentient sun and the Doctor possessed and the possibility of another regeneration. On a trip to Leadworth to visit they found Jack having tea in the Tyler family's kitchen. Apparently the advanced tech of Pete's side business had put them on Torchwood's radar.

Rose had been ecstatic to see her pseudo-brother again and had been upset when she learned that the Doctor had abandoned them. "How could you!" she yelled and stormed out of the house. Martha and Mickey went after her, telling the Doctor to stay put and talk to Jack.

Unable to talk to Rose, he grumbled but sat Jack down and explained what had happened on the Games Station. After checking to make sure that neither Jackie nor Pete was within earshot, he explained about Rose and the Bad Wolf. Surprisingly, Jack took the news well and accepted the Doctor's offer to travel with them again.

When Rose came back, tear stains marring her beautiful features, Jack was the only one she allowed to comfort her with a hug. Later the Doctor managed to get her alone and promised that he wouldn't keep things from her intentionally again. She was angry but agreed to go on another adventure, the banana fields of Villengard, with Martha and Jack in tow.

That had been a bad idea because it put them in the path of the Family of Blood and gave them a forced three-month exile to 1913. There was a manor house, a teaching position at a local school for Dr. Smith and mundane daily adventures for his wife Rose, her brother Jack and their friend Martha. Although the Doctor may have wanted to show the family mercy by giving them a chance to live out their lives, Jack wasn't so kind when they tried to attack the town. Using their own blaster against them, Jack destroyed the Family with four shots. The humans whose bodies they were using as hosts were already long gone.

It had taken some convincing to get John Smith to open the watch. He just wanted to stay and live out a simpler life with Rose. When he laid his hand over the fob watch in her palm, he watched what would have been their lives play out before his eyes.

"Why can't we have that, Rose?" he sobbed.

"Because, I wouldn't age like you do. You would get older and eventually die, and I would still look like I'm twenty." She squeezed his free hand. "Come back to me, Doctor."

He had been upset with Jack when he came back to his normal Time Lord self. But not as upset as Rose was for not dealing with the problem head on. No, he had to go into hiding, play married and put the lives of all of those people in danger. There was something else bothering her-he knew it. Following them into their room, he gently begged her to tell him what was really going on.

Tearful, heartfelt words came pouring out of her mouth: her mum was pregnant, is that quiet life really what he wanted, why did he keep insisting on calling her his wife, not that she didn't want that but he was just presuming, and finally the one that broke his heart, miscarriage. She wasn't even fully sure if it was the Doctor or John's baby she had been carrying. Just that about a month ago Martha had confirmed that she was pregnant and a week later she had lost the baby.

He held her while she cried, gently stroking her hair. "Everything will be alright," he said soothingly. And it would be eventually. He'd never given too much thought to children with Rose. No, that was a lie. Children with Rose would be…amazing. Maybe someday, maybe never. It all depended on what she wanted.

The next day Rose wanted a distraction, an adventure. The Doctor found them one. There was a temporal disturbance just outside of modern day London. They went to investigate and ended up in 1969.

Stuck in another mess of domestics. Only this time the Doctor was actually the Doctor and not some human version of himself, and Martha didn't have to play maid to them. Jack actually accessed one of his bank accounts and financed the whole thing. None of them had to work; they could just enjoy living in another time period while the Doctor ensured that the circular paradox with Sally Sparrow was completed. One night Jack told them about his involvement with Torchwood and, while both Rose and the Doctor were upset, she was the first to forgive him. Rose would always forgive eventually.

There was also plenty of time for the Doctor and Rose to have a long overdue talk about all the relationship issues he had been avoiding about their future. He wanted her, wanted this relationship and everything that entailed. If she wanted children, they would have children. If not, that was all right too. And more than anything he wanted to claim her and be claimed by her. He still had the tattoo from Amazonia Prime; maybe it was time to indulge her human heritage and wear a ring on the second finger of his left hand.

...

A few weeks later the TARDIS was sent back to them and the quartet went back to 2007. Martha was the first to break the news; she wasn't going back with them. Not that their lives weren't brilliant but she needed to get back to her family and to medical school. Reluctantly, Jack told them that he needed to get back to his team too.

Both did agree to stay an extra day for an impromptu bonding ceremony. The bride wore a white sundress and the groom wore his normal brown pinstripes. The Doctor gave her a blue sapphire and diamond ring. Rose gave him a simple platinum band with a rose engraved on it. They accidentally honeymooned on the Titanic, the space cruiser not the steam liner.

Rose and the Doctor managed to save the Earth from the Titanic plummeting into it. However the Doctor paced up and down the lengthy of their bedroom that night. Rose hadn't even bothered to change out of her more than slightly singed dress. There was no doubt that he was upset. Upset that all of those people had to die. Upset at the greed that had caused this. And so upset at her. It had been foolish of Rose to follow him and if Astrid hadn't pushed Rose out of that forklift and fallen into the engine herself…. He didn't want to think about what would have happened.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I wanted you safe. I'll always want you safe."

He crossed the room in three strides and wrapped his arms around her. "That's how I feel about you too."

Raising a hand to his cheek, Rose stroked his face with her thumb and then kissed him. They both knew that this would never truly end. One of them would always try to risk their lives for the other or sometimes make a desperate attempt to make the other go to safety. But the truth was that they were partners: better together, the stuff of legend. Sometimes they just needed to learn to lean on each other instead of rushing headlong into things alone.


	15. A New Companion

 

Jackie called a few weeks after their interrupted honeymoon. Something strange was going on back in London. There was a diet pill, a miracle cure, being touted in town, and it seemed suspicious. Pete had wanted to investigate himself, but Jackie had put her foot down, insisting that he stay with her since she was pregnant and almost ready to pop. She had tried to call Jack to have Torchwood investigate, but they were tied up on another assignment and had taken Jake with them. Mickey and Martha were also unavailable. They were on holiday in Majorca together.

The Doctor had to laugh at the thought of Jackie arranging an investigation into a possible alien invasion. Oh, how times had changed. Still, the prospect of an adventure always excited the Doctor and Rose, and this one was no different. He was bouncing around the TARDIS controls as they began investigating Adipose Industries. It was a bit cloak and dagger sneaking into the organization to gather information. They split up. Rose posed as a reporter doing an editorial on the company and was able to get in on one of the official facility tours. The Doctor impersonated a Health and Safety officer and questioned one of the sales representatives. Sarge and Lewis, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake were back on the case. Oh yes!

One of the sales people, a young woman, was very happy to help. She even provided him a list of their clients and one of the pendants that they used as giveaways. Although there was one sticky spot where she offered to play 'health and safety' with him, he swallowed hard and shook his head.

"Sorry," he replied, pointing to his wedding ring. "I'm very happily married. And Rose doesn't share. I don't either for that matter. Even if I wasn't married, I rarely do those kinds of things. Rose is an exception to the rule. A fantastic exception. She's very bendy and…" The woman sent him a death glare, and even he knew it was time to button it. "I'll just be on my way then." He tugged at his ear. "Bye then."

The married couple continued their investigations together this time, tracking down one of the customers and interviewing him. It was odd that he lost exactly one kilo every day and that his alarm was going off at the same time every night. Unable to get anywhere that night, they went back to the TARDIS and the Doctor analyzed the capsule while Rose listened from the jump seat. When he had learned all that he could, they retired to their room. Investigations always got them a little keyed up and they found an enjoyable outlet for their extra energy.

The following evening, they snuck back into Adipose to explore further. It had been the Doctor's idea to hide in the window washer's trolley. It had been Rose's idea to pass the downtime with a little recreational snogging. He still had a smear of her lippie on his face when they ran into Donna again.

Even in the midst of running for their lives Donna spared a minute to take the mickey out of him, asking him if that was his preferred shade or if he was just experimenting with a new one. She didn't, however, have a chance to congratulate them on their nuptials considering the Doctor decided to tell her as she was dangling from the window washing trolley several stories above London. Rose teased him for the rest of the night for his timing.

Donna, for her part, seemed to be enjoying the adventure (once their feet had something solid under them again). The Doctor found her handy to have around too. When he needed a second capsule to reprogram the computer, she was happy to supply the one she had procured. Donna also hadn't backed down when standing face to face with Ms. Foster or been fazed at all when she stood waving goodbye to the little babies.

Downstairs, as they were heading back to the TARDIS, the Doctor stopped Rose and handed her the sonic pen. "Might come in handy to have one yourself. Although it's not nearly as impressive as my sonic screwdriver," he teased, pressing a kiss into her neck.

Rose tucked the pen into her pocket and let her eyes flicker to Donna. "We should ask her to come with us," she told him in hushed tones.

Momentarily, he turned to look at the fiery red head. "I asked once and she turned us down. Asking twice is something I don't usually do," he whispered back.

"I have a feeling that if you don't ask her, she'll just push her way into the TARDIS," Rose laughed.

That was most likely true, the Doctor mused. Whnen Leela had joined him, that's what she had done. Ah well, rather than risk the stow-away, he invited Donna on board. Both he and Rose were surprised that she had all of her luggage in the car. Rose remarked that it was a pretty smart idea since she had walked in with just the clothes on her back.

After putting the TARDIS into the vortex and giving her a tour of the main rooms of the ship, the Doctor and Rose went to bed. Neither one of them really needed sleep but just felt the need to be close to one another instead, amongst other things. Tomorrow they would take their companion on an adventure.

...

He had meant to take them to ancient Rome. A bit of fun, Rose in a toga, a simple, fun excursion into the past, that's all he had wanted. Despite what people thought, trouble really was just the bits in between. He and Rose had gone weeks, months even without running for their lives.

And somehow he always seemed to find himself back in situations just like this. He had a choice to make. The consequences were severe: either it was the end of the planet Earth or he would have to kill thousands of innocent men, woman and children in Pompeii. There wasn't much time to make that decision either. He, Rose and Donna were trapped in a small capsule under Mount Vesuvius, the Pyroviles were at the door and his hands were on the button.

"If Pompeii is destroyed, then it's not just history. It's me. I make it happen," the Doctor said solemnly. Both Donna and Rose put their hands over his. That simple gesture proved to him that they were in this together, all of them and he was glad to have them here.

He had been reluctant to acquiesce to Donna's request to save Caecillius and his family because this wasn't a day where everyone lived. No, today was a day where everyone died, and they had caused it. He couldn't see past his grief to the possibility of saving just one family. Donna, with a little help from Rose, convinced him that if he couldn't save them all then he should at least save a few.

Somberly, the Doctor, Rose, Donna and the family of four stood watching Pompeii and its people burn. "It's never forgotten, Caecillius. Oh, time will pass. Men will move on, and stories will fade. But one day, Pompeii will be found again. In thousands of years. And everyone will remember you," the Doctor explained just before he left the family to grieve what they had lost and what they had gained.

…

As a small recompense for having destroyed an entire town, the Doctor took Rose and Donna to several safe planets. The women enjoyed planets where they could shop till their hearts content. Rose picked up baby presents for her mum and Pete. They also picnicked near waterfalls and enjoyed American jazz clubs in the 1920's.

For the most part, the Doctor enjoyed having Donna on board. She was clever, witty and Rose loved that she had someone else to help keep him in line. Sometime she was hard to take. More than once Donna had told the Doctor and Rose to get a room, and Rose had to stop him from making rude retorts. He and his wife were still in their honeymoon period, and if he wanted to snog her against the console of his ship no one was going to tell him that he couldn't. To alleviate his tension, Rose suggested that they set the controls to random and go on adventure.

That was how they ended up on the planet of the Ood. The hostess, Solana, called him Doctor Tyler after they used to psychic paper to get onto the tour. He quite liked that. Not that he would ever tell anyone or go by it. But it was a bit nice.

The fun and games didn't last however when the trio discovered what this company had done to enslave the Ood. It didn't go unnoticed just how uncomfortable Donna got when she thought that this was what humanity was going to turn into, people who removed the pieces of other race's brains in order to make them slaves.

"History tends to repeat itself," Rose said softly.

It was true. Humans, or any other race for that matter, never seemed to learn from their mistakes. But the Doctor was going to learn from his and try and right the wrong from the Sanctuary base. He and Rose might not have been able save those Ood, but they could save the ones on this planet. They could break the circle and free all the Ood.

And that's exactly what they did.

Donna had her faith return as the Ood sang them a song of joy and thanks. Today was one of the good days; one of the days where the Doctor didn't feel like a complete monster. With Rose by his side, the days of complete self-loathing were less frequent, but they were still there. His grip on Rose's hand tightened as he led her and Donna back into the TARDIS.

…

A few days later, Pete called. Jackie was in labour, and Rose was eager to get back to Earth and meet her new sibling. Oh, the Doctor lamented about having to go and even suggested dropping Rose off by herself so that he wasn't involved in domestics. Rose smacked his arm and warned him that his mother-in-law might have something to say about him not showing up. He smiled nervously, vividly remembering the slap she'd given him back in his ninth body.

Underneath all of his teasing, he was genuinely very excited about the birth of Pete and Jackie's baby. New life, new hope, a whole new timeline full of twists and turns and possibilities, that's what this baby meant. That and this was going to be Rose's little brother. He would be brilliant, naturally. He was a Tyler.

Tony, they named him, and he had brown eyes and light red hair. That fact didn't escape the Doctor's attention. He was about to loudly whinge that this child got to be ginger and he didn't when Rose shushed him. The baby was slept as she rocked her brother in her arms and she warned him not to wake the baby.

There was a rather large group of people crammed around Jackie's bed in the maternity ward. In addition to the Doctor, Rose and Donna, Pete, Mickey, Martha, Jack and Jake were all cooing over the baby. The large party wasn't allowed to stay there long before a nurse came in to shoo them along.

Rose swore that the man, Rory Williams, looked strangely familiar. It was odd, but the Doctor felt it too. There was something about the way time swirled around Rory. It was usually something he felt when he'd found a new companion. He never knew why just, he only knew who. But there was something else, something telling him it wasn't time yet.

Shaking his head clear, he wrapped an arm around Rose's waist and led her from the hospital. Their friends had decided to move the celebration back to Pete and Jackie's. Martha had an arm threaded through Mickey's while she chatted with Donna about her new job at UNIT. Jack was teasing that she really should drop UNIT and join him, Jake and Mickey at Torchwood. Wrinkling her nose at the prospect of moving to Cardiff, Martha told him no for the 'millionth time'. She wanted to strike out on her own right now.

They stayed for almost a week, with Rose and Donna helping Jackie and Tony settle into the house. The process of changing, feeding, bathing, clothing and getting Tony to nap made the Doctor long for the days of loomed children. That is until Rose handed him the infant so that she could make tea. The Doctor smiled at the baby and pressed a kiss into his brother-in-law's forehead. Maybe, just maybe, looming children meant that you missed out on some good stuff.

…

Six days in, Rose came up behind him as he stood watching the stars from the back garden. "He's beautiful," she whispered, laying her head against his shoulder. He nodded. "But I don't think I'm ready to take on a baby right now. Not with as crazy as our lives are. Or with us being so newly…together. It would be too much too soon. Don't you think?"

He agreed. Yet there was a part of him that was disappointed at the thought of not having a baby with his Rose, a wee one with her smile and his hair, another, at least part, Time Lord.

"One day, though," she whispered, threading her fingers through his. "If you want." He squeezed her hand, unable to convey how much he surprisingly did want a family with her. When she was ready, of course.

The next morning Martha called. UNIT was going to raid an ATMOS factory and needed the Doctor's expertise. Happily, he, Rose and Donna went to help. While he examined the sleek exhaust scrubber, Rose ran interference between him and the UNIT brass. Brilliant Donna investigated the offices.

It was the Sontarans, aided by a gullible young man. The Doctor's jaw clenched as he set the timer on the explosive that he was going to use on them. He had to give them a chance, but he refused to die with them. There was just too much he had to live for. With a quick nod to Rose, he stepped into the transmat.

As expected, the warrior race refused to take his offer to leave. Thoughts of all the people of the Earth below choking on the poisoned gas filled his mind as he fingered the button. All those innocent lives or the lives the of a clone race determined to destroy them, it should be an easy choice. There was really only one choice, but these deaths would once again be on his hands. One of the soldiers lunged at him, and his thumb depressed the plunger.

Thirty seconds. That's all he had to get back to Earth, back to Rose. More than enough time, he thought, activating the teleport. She was there, waiting with open arms for him. She knew that this wouldn't have been easy on him; these decisions never were. But he had her to help him through it.

Martha and Donna followed him and Rose back to the TARDIS. He collapsed into the jump seat and smiled slightly at Donna quizzing Martha about being back on the ship. While she missed the traveling sometimes, Martha insisted that she was happy right where she was. No more taking trips through time and space for her. But it was always nice to visit.

Raising his right hand to her mouth Rose kissed the back of it before wrapping his arm around her shoulders. It had been a very long day. Meeting Donna's granddad, Wilf, had been the highlight.

It might not be a bad idea to go on a fun trip and invite Martha along, the Doctor thought. Maybe they could meet another historical figure or a concert. The Beatles perhaps, or Elvis. He abruptly stood, wanting to leave on an adventure when the ship began to shake of its own accord. Martha yelled at him that she had wanted to leave, and he had sworn that he wasn't doing anything. This was his ship taking them on an adventure, and he had no clue where they were going or, as Rose would call it, a normal day.


	16. The Biggest Family on Earth

 

The Doctor watched the two blonde women walking ahead of him with keen interest. He strained to hear what they were saying, but Donna was nattering in his ear. Yes, she had some valid concerns: rescuing Martha, ending the war between the humans and the Hath, the 'Breath of Life' myth and the funny little numbered plaques everywhere. But all of those issues paled in comparison to what his wife and their daughter were talking about.

Undeniably Jenny, as she was now calling herself, was _their_ daughter. They had used his hand in the progenitor. The same hand that Rose held all the time and had kissed only minutes before the people of Messaline had violated him. Luckily the machine had broken as it wasn't equipped to handle two sets of DNA, let alone his advanced genetics. Because these people would not have been spared his fury had they tried to progenate another 'child' from him.

Still they were left to deal with the consequences of the use of him as breeding stock. Everything about this new girl, this Jenny, scared him. He had been a father and a grandfather before. And with the exception of Susan, he hadn't been involved in their lives. Something he regretted when the war came, not getting to know his family. He never thought that he'd get a second chance to be involved in the lives of his offspring. But he wanted it, especially now.

Rose had said, very recently, that she wasn't ready to have children. Yet here they were with a grown daughter. If he had to guess, he'd put Jenny's comparable human age at 17 or 18. Would Rose accept her? Would he? She was still a product of the machine, born a product of war, with military history and strategy in her head.

"Reminds me of a bloke I once knew. You know, big ears, leather jacket, _really_ nice bum," Rose had retorted when he'd said as much earlier.

He didn't have very long to contemplate this newest complica...change to his life. Martha rejoined them. Donna figured out the plaques; the humans and the Hath had been at war for a week. Oh, the damage that had been done in that short period of time and the breath of life- terraforming. If they could find the device, use it, and then maybe these people would find a greater purpose.

It happened in a split second. The planet was changing around them, but it was too much change for the Colonel. He raised his gun, aimed at the Doctor and fired. Jenny made to step in front of the Doctor, but Rose shoved them both aside.

"Mum!" Jenny cried as Rose collapsed into the Doctor's arms. The bullet hit her shoulder. She was bleeding rather profusely, however they had been lucky. Today could have taken a devastating turn.

The other soldiers restrained General Cobb while Donna gave him a very loud piece of her mind and Martha tried to slow the bleeding in Rose's wound. Within a few minutes, the skin at the edges had already started to repair itself. "Amazing," Martha whispered as she moved Rose's shirt back into place. "Though I shouldn't be surprised after all the things I've seen you two do."

Gingerly, the Doctor picked up the woman he loved and started to carry her back towards their ship despite the fact that she insisted she could walk. Donna and Martha fell into step behind them. Unsure of where she belonged, Jenny shifted from one foot to another.

"Doctor," Rose whispered. "Don't forget our daughter."

A large grin lit up his face as he turned around. "Come on then, Jenny. It's time to go home; lots of thing to see and lots of running to do." Enthusiastically, Jenny ran after her parents and their friends.

After taking Martha home and convincing himself that Rose was going to make a full recovery they started running across the Universe yet again. As always they visited different planets, different times having impossible adventures. They solved a murder with Agatha Christie, and visited to the largest library in the Universe. At the Library they only just managed to transport almost everyone out before the Vashta Nerada took back control of their forests.

…

They went to the planet Midnight; bit of a family holiday Rose called it as she threaded her arm through Jenny's. It was amazing how fluidly their daughter had slipped into their lives. He enjoyed teaching Jenny new things: history, science, mechanics and engineering. He also loved watching Rose introduce Jenny to what could be called 'popular culture': movies, telly, books, celebrity gossip, and make-up. But she also told Jenny stories of her childhood, her mum, and her travels with the Doctor and tried to impart on her daughter lessons that she had had to learn the hard way.

Jenny and Donna had convinced the couple that they needed a few hours without their best friend and daughter cramping their style. Besides, the two woman wanted to sunbathe, maybe spend some time in the spa. So off went the Doctor and Rose on an adventure to see a waterfall of sapphires. What could go wrong?

Everything had, obviously, gone pear shaped. At first everyone had been lovely. The other passengers were interesting once they came out of their shells. Then the transport had broken down. Sky had been possessed by some unknown entity, but it had found a better target in the Doctor. Through the haze of the other mind in his, he could hear Rose screaming for them to let him go. He was almost numb to external stimuli as the passengers started dragging him towards the door.

Suddenly it was over. The Hostess had grabbed Sky and hurled the two of them out into the abyss beyond. The Doctor's mind cleared almost immediately, and he held Rose close to his chest as they waited for the rescue transport. His eyes were flicking between all of the humans around him. He would take a Dalek any day over a group of scared humans. They were volatile and unpredictable. He looked down at Rose and squeezed her again. But they could also be brilliant and brave.

"That Hostess. What was her name?" he asked aloud.

No one answered. Apparently, the woman had given her life for a group of people who couldn't be bothered to learn her name, himself included.

"Janet," Rose said softly. "Her name was Janet Sparks."

The Doctor kissed the top of her head. Of course she knew. Rose was so good with people. Out of everyone here she would be the one to know the woman's name.

After picking up Donna and Jenny back on Midnight, they headed back to the TARDIS. Once in the Vortex, the Doctor and Rose retired to their room. Tonight, he needed her. Needed to feel a very real her in his arms, surrounding him. To feel himself buried inside of her. Because she knew who he was and right now after having that thing in his head, there was just the faintest doubt in the back of his mind. Rose would make him better, of that fact he was completely sure.

…

Sooner rather than later came the one thing the Doctor was dreading, introducing Jenny to Jackie and Pete.

It was one thing for your twenty-two year old (well twenty-twoish) daughter to be married to a 900 year old time traveling alien. It was another for her to suddenly show up on her mother's doorstep for obligatory Sunday tea with a fully grown half-alien daughter. A granddaughter who physically looked to be similar in age to your daughter even though she was only a few weeks old would be hard for anyone to take.

To his immense relief and surprise, Jackie wasn't mad. Well, she wasn't mad about Jenny. She was mad, however, that the Doctor and Rose hadn't brought her around sooner.

"I didn't want to scare the poor girl," the Doctor muttered under his breath, and Rose smacked his arm. Not wanting to tempt fate any further, the Doctor wandered over to Pete's basement workshop while Jackie showed Jenny photo album after album of Tony's baby pictures and Rose growing up. To be honest, he'd rather tinker with Pete than look at naked baby pictures of Rose. Although, naked pictures of an adult Rose were a bit intriguing; he wouldn't mind having some of those. He'd have to remember to talk to her about that the next time they were alone.

For the next few hours he helped Pete to fortify the defenses on the secure bunker that had been built in the basement. After what had happened to his first wife, his first Jackie, and to the world that he was born into, Pete had made the protection of his new family a top priority. Jack and the Doctor had both helped him procure the needed materials, most of which had come from off world. Personally, the Doctor couldn't blame him, and suddenly he felt an overwhelming need to keep Rose and Jenny safe.

...

They left late in the evening, long after Tony had fallen asleep. Donna excused herself to go to bed but Jenny was brimming with energy and questions. After a day filled with stories from her mum's past, she wanted to learn about her dad. Reluctantly, he agreed to answer some of her questions and suggested that they retire to the library. Rose tried to leave and give them some privacy. But he, of course insisted that she stay.

"No more secrets, Rose," he murmured against her temple as he pulled her close to his side on one of the sofas. And for the next few hours he told Rose and Jenny about his childhood on Gallifrey, the Academy and stealing the TARDIS. There was no way that he could cover almost a thousand years' worth of memories in one night, but it was a start. There was still a sting to the memories, but sharing them with his family made him feel just a little bit lighter.

…

Months later the quartet was enjoying a nice day in a marketplace on Shan Shen when one of the Tricksters brigade tried to force Rose to go back and decide not to join the Doctor. Not a very smart move on their part.

A faint golden glow filled her eyes as the fortune teller attempted to distract her so the beetle could do its work. The Doctor came barreling into the room at that moment, having heard Rose yelling at someone to stop.

"I create myself," Rose declared as she knocked the other woman aside. "The darkness is coming, and we must act."

He tugged at her arm and pulled her from the tent. And there it was. The words BAD WOLF were written on every surface.

"Mum, what happened?" Jenny probed, her face contorted with worry.

Donna's hand gingerly touched one of the posters. "What's Bad Wolf?"

"I am," Rose replied and the same time the Doctor said, "The end of the Universe."

"Don't be so dramatic," Rose chided before grabbing her head in pain. "The Darkness is coming. The stars are going out."

"What's wrong with her?" demanded Donna as she rubbed Rose's back soothingly.

Quickly, the Doctor explained what happened on the Games Station. "I thought I got all of the Vortex out of her, but I didn't." And now he was worried that it was killing her.

"Stop nattering," Rose said through clenched teeth. "We need to get back to Earth."

...

Daleks, it was the Daleks. They always seemed to take everything that he loved. Donna gripped his hand tightly as he watched his TARDIS with his wife and his daughter inside plummet into something they had little chance of escaping. The only thing that kept him from following them into the abyss was the bruising pressure of Donna's hand in his. She knew what he was thinking, and she was stopping him. And he was glad for it. The only real chance that the people of Earth had was him and as much as his hearts were breaking, he had to move forward.

Jack was playing dead. The Doctor and Donna were led down to face Davros. The Doctor taunted and prodded the other man, trying to force him to act, to give him the opportunity to escape this holding cell. Because right now, he would not hesitate to destroy the Daleks and their creator; there was blood, anger and revenge coursing through his veins.

Messages of Osterhagen keys and warp stars came in from the Doctor's friends and former companions. Davros taunted him about turning people into weapons. "Don't listen to him Doctor," Donna urged. "You make people so much more than they were. So much better."

Things looked dire for the next few minutes. Martha, Mickey, Jack, Jake and Sarah Jane were transmatted into the vault. For one brief moment his hope almost completely flickered out.

And then he heard it, that beautiful noise that he had heard hundreds or thousands, maybe millions of times now, his TARDIS. The ship materialized, and it was the Games Station all over again.

"The Bad Wolf returns," Dalek Caan tittered.

An ethereal, golden glow surrounded Rose as she stepped out of the ship with Jenny close behind her. Davros aimed a blast of energy at Rose, and she batted it away.

"You play god over and over again, Davros. You think that you have the right to rip the Universe apart," Rose spoke, stepping forward. "But you have no right. No right to destroy the civilizations and the people that are different from you. Your reign of terror ends now."

Davros opened his mouth to speak, and with a wave of her hand Bad Wolf Rose turned him and all of his creations to dust. All but one that is. She turned to Dalek Caan.

"Peace at long last," the Dalek said as Rose smiled softly in his direction.

"Sleep well," she whispered before he glowed more brightly then any of the other creatures and disappeared.

The force field around him disappeared and the Doctor stepped forward, once again ready to take the Vortex from his Rose, once again ready to die for her. She held up a hand to stop him.

"I will always keep you safe, my Doctor."

"But it's killing you. Please Rose, let me do this." He tried to grab her waist and pull her to him. She gently stepped back and turned back towards the TARDIS.

"The planets still need to be returned," she said over her shoulder to the Doctor. But he didn't care; he needed Rose safe. He barely noticed everyone else following them.

As soon as Rose crossed the threshold, she began to glow brighter. "Do not worry, my love. I'll be fine." When her hand touched the console, the energy began to flow from her and into the ship. A moment later she collapsed into the Doctor's arms. After a cursory check with his sonic, he handed her off to Martha and took Jack and Jenny with him to return the planets to their correct orbits.

Working together they managed to send them all back save one. Earth. Despite his worry over Rose's Bad Wolf experience, he found a certain joy in having so many people there to help fly the TARDIS. Working together, they pulled Sol 3 back to its proper place in the Universe.

...

He first parted ways with Sarah Jane, hugging her goodbye and wishing her the best. She made him promise to visit or she would call Rose. He happily agreed. Then he went to drop Jack, Mickey, Martha and Jake off in Cardiff. Jack pulled him aside and asked if what had happened on the Crucible was anything like what happened before. The Doctor gave him a small smile, clapped him on the shoulder and simply said, "Little bit, yeah. We'll talk about it more later. "

Rose insisted on checking on her mum, Pete and Tony. They had been holed up in the safe room since the whole thing started. Jackie made tea while Jenny and Rose filled her and Pete in on the abbreviated version of what happened on the Crucible. The appearance of a goddess-like Rose was carefully avoided. There was no need to upset Jackie. They had yet to explain to her the physiological changes that had happened the last time Rose had done this.

There were tests that he needed to run to make sure that Rose hadn't suffered any ill effects from her latest union with the TARDIS. The Doctor was wrapped up in thoughts of how Rose had become the Bad Wolf again and what that might mean when Donna pulled him aside. She was leaving. Not for good, she would always be up for one off trips or holidays, but the Doctor and Rose needed time alone with Jenny. Their daughter needed to learn about the Universe and besides, the three of them aged differently than Donna. Without an aging human companion, they could stretch out their time with the Earth bound branch of the Tyler family and the rest of their friends.

"Just don't disappear completely on me, Spaceman, or I'll call Rose," Donna threatened as she hugged him tightly once they dropped her off.

"Why does everyone threaten to call Rose?" he moaned.

Donna pointed a finger in his face. "Face it, Spaceman. You may not listen to anyone else, but a simple please from Rose Tyler and you'll do anything that she pleases."

He tried to stammer a protest but nothing came to his mind. Donna was right; Rose had him wrapped around that pretty little pinky finger of hers.

Rose wrapped Donna in a hug. "You'll be brilliant," Rose told her.

Donna chuckled. "Of course I will." She hugged the Doctor and then Jenny. "Keep these two out of trouble, Jen, and make sure the TARDIS keeps their room soundproof. For your own sanity."

As always, his friends' departure was bitter sweet. They had always been the best of him, and he loved having them all together on the TARDIS. But they always left in the end, going back to their own lives and families as they should even if it left him a little sad and lonely.

Sarah Jane had told him that he had the largest family on Earth, but it wasn't the same as having a family of his own. He'd had that once, and they were gone now.

Turning back towards the TARDIS, he smiled when his eyes met Rose's. His wife stood there with an arm wrapped around their daughter's waist while Jenny leaned into her mother's side. He crossed over to them and enveloped them both in a hug and planted kisses on the tops of their heads. He wasn't alone anymore. In reality, he hadn't been alone since the day he met Rose. She had given him what he had thought was impossible to have ever again, a family of his own.


	17. The Beginning in the End

 

Adventure and fun, that's what they needed! Christmas! That's where they would go next. He set the coordinates for Victorian London expecting a calm relaxing holiday and instead landed them in an adventure with someone who at first glance appeared to be a future Doctor. Except that he didn't remember Jenny or Rose. That alone convinced the Doctor that this man couldn't be a future him because he would never forget Rose.

Turns out he was right. The man was really named Jackson Lake, and he had temporarily lost his mind when the Cybermen killed his wife. They couldn't bring her back, but the Doctor, Rose and Jenny could stop Miss Hartigan and save his son. Later, when Jackson invited them to stay with him and Rosita for Christmas dinner, the Doctor was about to decline when Rose readily agreed. Nothing wrong with a little celebration, he supposed. Whatever made the women in his life happy.

From there they traveled the cosmos. In downtime, he started tutoring Jenny on subjects that he had learned at the Academy. She learned quickly and was always eager to know more. Rose always stuck around for his lessons on the history of Gallifrey. He was so proud of Jenny and happy to finally be able to share his planet's history with the two people he loved most.

…

There was more travelling, more escapades. Once they had accidentally landed near Bowie Base One right before it was supposed to blow up. It was a fixed point, and there was nothing that they could do. They managed to leave before they interfered with anything, for once.

They made a trip to Earth next. Jenny was visiting Donna while Rose and the Doctor tracked an anomaly. The two of them plus the passengers on a double decker bus ended up on planet full of sand. It was a simple enough rescue mission for Jenny. She was doing very well at her flying lessons. Now he just had to work out when and where they were. The biggest problem with this situation was the wanton Lady Christina.

Every time Rose left his side to attend to the other passengers, Christina was there. She was overtly flirtatious as she tried and failed to attraction his attentions. Frankly, he was uninterested and did his best to ignore her. But Christina was accustomed to getting what she wanted, by force if necessary. The Doctor pushed her away immediately when she attempted to kiss him. He was busy wiping his mouth on the back of sleeve, and he didn't notice Rose take a swing at the brunette, knocking her out cold.

It was absurd how aroused he was by the sight of Rose putting on such a primitive show of defending her territory. But later, after everyone had been returned home, the rip in time and space repaired and Christina was handed over to the authorities, the Doctor showed the woman that he loved just how much he had enjoyed her territorial defensiveness.

...

Trips back to Leadworth slowed down, at least for the inhabitants of the TARDIS. As far as Jackie knew, the three of them were at her house every single week, but it was rarely only a week between visits. It wasn't unheard of for them to go months without making Sunday dinners. But they always came running back when there was a problem. They had helped Jack and his Torchwood team stop the world's government from handing millions of children over to an alien race known as the 456. And they most certainly ran home when something started demanding that the citizens of Earth hand over Prisoner Zero.

The moment he stepped out of the TARDIS, a willowy redhead grabbed him by his tie and drug him towards the town square. He spluttered and tried to free himself from the apparently crazy woman's grip.

"Excuse me," Rose yelled, moving to cut the woman off. "Where do you think you are going with my husband?"

The young woman stopped but didn't let go of the Doctor's tie. "He's the Doctor and you're Rose Tyler." Her accent was distinctly Scottish. "Something alien and weird is going on here, and we need your help."

"You could have just asked," the Doctor retorted, prying her fingers off his favorite swirly blue tie. "What's your name, by the way? And how do you know who we are?"

"I'm Amelia Pond, but you can call me Amy." She pointed at Rose. "Your mum can be a bit chatty at times, and I filled in the details using Google. Now can we get on with it?"

"I like her," Jenny giggled from behind her dad. Rose sent her to check on Pete, Jackie and Tony while Amy reintroduced the Doctor and Rose to her boyfriend, the familiar Rory Williams. As a nurse, Rory had been on a rotation in the long term care ward and observed coma patients apparently up and walking around town. Knowing there was something inherently wrong with that, he had been taking pictures.

"Good on you," the Doctor exclaimed, taking his camera phone from him. It was fairly quick work to uncover the shape shifter and return Prisoner Zero to the Atraxi. Problems solved and the Earth saved all in less than an hour. That might just be a new record.

Jackie insisted that they stay for tea. The Doctor put on a show of protest but happily joined in the family dinner. He would never admit to Jackie how much he enjoyed the time spent with his extended family.

As he, Rose and Jenny went to leave, they found Amy and Rory leaning against the door to the TARDIS. "Are you lot just going to leave without saying goodbye, then?" Amy asked.

"That tends to be our M.O., yeah." The Doctor shrugged.

Rose elbowed him in the ribs. "Thank you both for all your help today."

"No problem," Rory said, ducking his head shyly.

Jenny tugged on her dad's sleeve. "Maybe we could offer them a trip, as a thank you. Might be nice to have someone to talk to when you and Mum get wrapped up in each other. Gets more than a bit annoying, that."

"We're not that bad. Are we?" the Doctor asked, confused.

"Yes," mother and daughter responded together, although Rose looked amused and Jenny annoyed.

Rubbing uncomfortably at the back of his neck, the Doctor invited Amy and Rory on a one-off trip that turned into two years of exploits.

…

Amy proved how clever she was when she made Liz X abdicate and saved the Star Whale. A trip to Venice turned out to be anything but romantic when Jenny had to go undercover in a lair of fish Vampires. Rory proved his bravery when facing the Silurians by saving Rose and Amy even though it almost cost him his life. And everybody learned, after meeting Vincent Van Gogh, that sometimes knowing one's own future didn't always change it. But it could give you peace in knowing how you would be remembered.

In their downtime Amy and Jenny grew to be incredibly close friends, but the Doctor was wary of the two of them discussing boys.

"Let them alone," Rose chastised when he came into the galley complaining. "She needs someone to talk to about these things."

"She's a Time Lady," he countered. "She should be above such things."

From the corner of the room, Rory snorted. The Doctor hadn't even noticed he was there although he shouldn't have been surprised. Rory and Rose got along like long lost siblings. They were very similar and loved to commiserate when the Doctor was in a mood or team up and take the mickey out of him.

"Jenny's part human," Rory pointed out. "I'm sure that she has some sort of humanish hormones and even if she didn't, you're a full Lord of Time and are hardly 'above such things'. The walls in this place can be really thin sometimes."

The Doctor looked aghast, and Rose doubled over laughing. "Rory Williams, you are not one to talk about thin walls, young man," she teased.

Covering his ears in order to avoid hearing any more of their conversation, the Doctor fled the room. He could hear the two of them guffawing all the way back to the console room. It was time for an adventure, one with lots of running and hopefully less of people ganging up on him.

…

In a bubble universe, the Doctor finally got to talk face to face with his beloved TARDIS. While he and Rose were helping to rebuild a console room in order to rescue the other, Idris stopped them and joined their hands. "All my hard work has paid off. My beautiful Idiot and my glorious Wolf together until the end of time itself, just as it should be."

Before they could digest the meaning of the words they were off again tracking down the TARDIS shell and house. And then Idris was gone. Her essence returned to its rightful place, but it was still a little sad. Everyone knew they could talk to the TARDIS; however this had been the time when she could talk back. They mourned the loss of that.

…

Rory proposed to Amy after a daring adventure with swashbuckling pirates. Not surprisingly, they chose to go back to Leadworth soon after that. They had a wedding to plan and lives to get on with.

"Don't think you lot are going to get away with not visiting," Amy threatened as she hugged them all. "I want Jenny as my maid of honor and I wouldn't doubt if Rory asked Rose to stand up as his best man."

"I already asked her," Rory replied, kissing Jenny on the cheek.

"And I readily agreed." Rose smiled.

The Doctor looked insulted. "So my wife and daughter get to be in the wedding, and I'm what? A guest?"

"Pretty much," Rory teased and clapped him on the shoulder. "I'll miss you too, Doctor."

The Doctor swallowed; he would miss them too. He missed all of his companions, but there was a part of him that felt like there were adventures that were never to be with these two. It was almost an echo of another timeline, one that he couldn't see. And that was a little sad yet was so happy that these two were going to get their happy ending together.

"Oh, I have no doubt we'll be popping back into your lives all the time," said the Doctor fondly.

"Probably at the least opportune or the most unwanted of times." Jenny grinned and gave her friends another round of hugs.

"See ya soon." Rose waved before slipping back into the TARDIS and closing the door on yet another chapter of their lives.

…

The memories started moving faster now as the imminent collapse of the Eleventh Doctor's timeline neared. The Doctor gripped his head in his hands at the onslaught of information flooded through his mind.

In between travels, the Doctor and Rose spent a considerable amount of time with their friends and family. There were weddings: Amy and Rory's, Mickey and Martha's, Donna and a man named Lee's. There were babies: Melody Williams and her little brother Andy, twins Gareth and Rita Smith, Elizabeth McAvoy and one small bundle of joy for the Doctor and Rose.

It had been close to 50 years relative Earth time since they had been married when Rose sidled up next to him on the jump seat and broke the news. He was overjoyed. Not that he wasn't happy with their family of three but Jenny had started traveling more on her own lately and had even figured out a way to speed up the growth of her own TARDIS. But another child, any child with Rose, was something he never thought he'd be blessed with.

They visited Earth more frequently during Ian's formative years, not wanting Jackie to miss out on her grandson's life. It severely shortened the time Rose would have with her mum, but some things were worth the sacrifice, she said.

…

Years passed while they traveled amongst the stars and through time. And as Ian got older they began to once again stretch out their time with those left on Earth. Rose cried the day that Tony married Melody Williams and again on the day that Jackie buried Pete again. Pain and loss were a part of their lives just as much as love and laughter. But they had each other and their children to help them through the rough patches.

Over the next two centuries they occasionally had other people travel with them. Some of them were humans, some weren't, but each and every one of them was completely brilliant in their own way. Times had been good, no great, until two months ago.

Jenny and Ian had joined their parents on an adventure, and things had quickly gone wrong. In order to save a group of children from the tyrant of the month, one of them had to enter a chamber flooded with radiation. Of course it had to be him. There was no way he would let anyone else in there.

He didn't want to go, the Doctor thought as he pushed the door open. This may have been one of his longest-lived bodies, but he was worried about what he would get next time. He knew that Rose would still love him no matter who he regenerated into, but there was still a small niggling doubt there.

When the floppy haired, green-eyed, slightly younger looking man emerged from the golden fire, his fears were quickly assuaged. Rose stayed with him through the regeneration sickness, making sure he had tea and snuggling against him as he slept. There were new nuances to his personality, but underneath he was still the Doctor and Rose Tyler loved him.

…

The Eleventh Doctor stood on the planet with the flying dinosaurs exactly where he had been when Rose promised him forever. This was it. Time to fade into nonexistence; the memories had all but caught up with him. He held up his left hand watching expectantly as the last of the memories overtook his old ones. At the very last moment he closed his eyes, unable to face his own destruction.

Familiar arms wrapped around his waist. "What are you doing out here, love?" Rose whispered against his back.

Opening his eyes, he blinked rapidly and felt something slip away. He examined the wedding ring on his hand. It felt brand new yet comfortably familiar at the same time. "Just thinking about how lucky I am that my ring still fits. After three hundred years I would hate to have to replace it. What if I had regenerated to have dainty hands, Rose?" He spun around to face her. "Could you imagine me dainty? That would _not_ be cool."

"I think you are very cool, Doctor. Especially the bow tie." She giggled and he pressed his lips against hers.

"I love you." He moved to nuzzle into her neck.

Running her fingers through his hair, she grinned. "I love you, too."

Unable to resist, he asked her a question. "How long are you going to stay with me?"

Rose let a throaty chuckle. "Oh, I don't know. Until you regenerate into someone without a nice bum and a good smile."

"Rooooose!"

"Oh, love," she sighed, exasperated. "You have my forever. For better or worse, not matter whom you regenerate into. I am _never_ gonna leave you."

"Nor I you." He lifted her hand to his lips and gently kissed her knuckles. "Where to next, my beautiful Rose?"

"I was thinking an afternoon bed." Her hand moved to cup his cheek.

"Well after that, obviously."

"You gonna have the energy to go anywhere after I'm done ravishing you?" Her tongue poked out of her teeth as she smiled.

"Shut up. You love it," he teased, his own manic grin gracing his face. "I did have an idea... Do you fancy another trip to Amazonia Prime? I was thinking that this new body needs a new tattoo."

For a moment Rose acted like she was going to protest. "Fine," she said, not sounding the least bit resigned. "But this time I'm calling ahead for reservations. I hate it when we don't get our normal suite. Race you back to the TARDIS." She took off running with the Doctor hot on her heels. It was time for new adventures.

_The TARDIS sighed, the timelines having finally righted themselves completely. She hadn't liked putting her Wolf and her Thief through so much pain, but she knew it had been warranted. First she had needed to bide her time to ensure that the world that her Thief had once sent her Wolf away to was no more, and he needed to almost lose his precious girl in order to see how much he truly needed her. Sometimes the way to true happiness was paved with heartache._

_She felt her Thief try to dial in coordinates to one of their favorite destinations. Chuckling to herself, the time and space ship changed the route. Now was not the time for fun and games. It was time to pick up her Impossible Captain Jack and make their appointment at the end of the Universe._


End file.
